Zero's Rogue
by sendicard
Summary: Louise desired for greatness, to rise above her scorned failures, yet at the end of her desperate rope she was left with only one final gamble, the familiar summoning. A sacred ritual that proves once and for all a mage's affinity. What does it say then, that the one she summoned was neither man nor beast, but a strange child as covered in grime as she is red? [OC Summon]
1. Prologue-A Child of War has arrived!

**Rogue**. _A noun_ meaning a wild animal driven away or living apart from the herd and having savage or destructive tendencies.

* * *

I put my heart into the summoning ritual, the ultimate test for if I was truly worth my position, both as a mage in this esteemed academy, and as a member of the Valliere family. Magic talent be damned, I have always dreamed of being a hero like my mother, or at the very least an accomplished mage. I dreamed of riding through the clouds on a griffin, or manticore, or perhaps if I was lucky, a dragon.

My classmates mock me, say I am worthless, nothing. And I have fought with everything I have against their claims, to rise above them, but even I am not immune to the effect of constant reinforcement. All the evidence, even in my own observations and actions, say they are right, that I am nothing. A zero.

In the end, if I am honest with myself, I would be grateful for a rabbit, maybe a black cat, or even a mouse like Old Osmond. Anything to prove everyone wrong, to prove that I am truly a mage, that I am worthy of my name as the third scion of the Valliere.

And so, in the brief moment, when the smoke rose from in front of me, I felt the final vestiges of my will set ablaze. Even as I breathed in the smoke, I did not allow myself to move away. An intense lead feeling in my gut forcing me to stand in my place. I thought of what this means for my family name, for what my failure to summon would mean for my future, rooting me in place. Would I be disowned? If so, would I even be allowed to stay here at this academy? I am no fool, I know my status as a Valliere is the only reason I have not been removed before this failure.

"Another explosion? Is that all she's capable of?"

"I hear the southern mines need attention. She could work as a miner?"

"No, no. Clearly, she's summoned lunch."

"You're thinking with your stomach again. I don't smell smoked pork."

"That's because she didn't hit you with her spell!"

In this moment, as my classmates began to deride my abilities, blazing hatred boils. In this moment, I hate them. I hate them for being right.I hate them for being successful. I hate them for being so far above me they feel sure enough with themselves to mock me, a Valliere. With every fiber of my being I hate their cries and condemnations. If my hatred had a body of its own, surely my classmates would have been struck down. Most of all though, I hate myself. As the sting of tears reaches my eyes, I tell myself it is just the smoke.

When the smoke begins to clear, I see the shadow of a figure lying upon the ground. My heart skips once, twice, before it threatens to burst from my chest, the pounding in my ears muting everything else.I barely manage to stop myself from lunging forward into the smoke to embrace the small shadow and swing it into the air. I am not a zero, I am not a failure, I am a Valliere, I am a mage!

When the smoke clears enough for me to make out basic features, I am struck with a sudden curiosity. Instead of a baby griffon, or perhaps an insanely large cat, there is a young girl, perhaps ten or eleven. If I was to use one word to describe her, it would be disheveled. Her hair is that of a bright forest green, matted with grease and dirt, and the occasional red strand. Her white and red dress, one that even I would save only for the best of occasions, is torn and ripped as if the girl had just gotten into a fight with a wolf. Her skin is as unnaturally pale as it is dirty as if the sun is a thing thought of more than actually seen in her life, or she is sickly. I briefly worry I have summoned a dying girl before the flame in my soul shoves such thoughts away. I note she has quite a few cuts and bruises that are - healing right in front of my eyes…?. Ridiculous. Merely a trick of the light, bending amidst the smoke.

There is a long blade strapped to her side or at least it looks long when compared to her as if she is prepared for combat, but then, why the dress? Who fights in a dress of that high quality? Even owning something so extravagant...None but a noble would be allowed to don such fineries. Being so callous as to fight in it? That speaks of wealth to make the Princess gape or a carelessness no noble family would countenance. Either way, the dress is a brand, a sign that speaks of impossibility, or at the very least improbability.

On her other hip there is another object, with a handle like that of a pistol, but not one I have ever seen before. I determining it to be some sort of accessory. The girl has to be a noble, and no noble would use such a crude device.

There is a traveling pack of some sort underneath her, pushing her slightly into the air as she lays with her eyes closed. I can't quite make it out, but it is definitely made with no thought for how it would look with the rest of her outfit. Practical, but showing a complete lack of regard for her station.

There are contradictions, clues speaking of a girl trained to fight like that of a peasant, and others speaking of a noble with funds to spare. Each fighting each other inside my head, until the smoke clears and I come to a sudden conclusion.

The sword is in its holster, I have no idea if it is actually a blade or a practice sword. Normally the uncertainty would actually be helpful, as the girl's young age would allow me to safely place it in the 'practice sword' category.

There is just one problem, one glaring issue that made all my debate worthless. One truth that reduces my blood to ice.

When the smoke clears completely, and vision of details has been permitted, and everyone in the clearing moves away at once, completely silent, everyone taking a step back but me. Even I am held in place only by a determination I wasn't previously aware I held.

The dress is not made of white and red cloth, it is just white. The child is covered in blood, some of it still fresh, from her hair to her shoes, and from the pleased look in her newly opened deep violet eyes, it is not hers.

What does it say of me, that my heartfelt desire for greatness has brought forth a Child of War?


	2. A1-CH-1-Why can't she make this easy?

I sit at my desk, a confusing tome about the effects fighting has on a child's mind in front of me. One would think that I would be talking to my new familiar, asking it questions, instead of hoping to find answers in a dusty book that had been discredited before I was even born.

Two hours have passed since the summoning, since I pulled her away from the courtyard, away from the looks and murmurs, and rushed her to my room. I had barely spared time to finish the contract and introduce myself. It was strange, I had thought a Child of War would be loyal to her fight, but she had looked so happy when I told her she was mine now.

Mine, I had claimed, as if I was trying to reassure her that no one would try to take her back. As if proclaiming ownership over her like some kind of slave was the way to do that. Yet she had smiled, and asked me if I promised.

"Tch!"

Shame on her bastard parents, whoever they are.

Children of War, they are rarely ever spoken of in Tristain, the very name is a blight on our tongue. Yet the term is one not unheard of, for it is still taught to young and eager nobles. They are held as an example, a reason to why we are not allowed to push ourselves too far too young. A reason for our parents to hold in their pride even when they produce a prodigy.

They are supposed to be broken individuals, twisted entirely to a cause from a young age and forced to kill as soon as they can hold a blade. They are loyal to none other than their handlers, and take enjoyment from nothing but fighting. When forced to stay still, it was said they will begin to shake in anticipation of their next order, and that they will stay that way until it is given. At-least, that's what this book in front of me says.

This book is wrong. The girl I led up to my room but two hours ago still sits still, reading an old book on basic magic theory with a quiet excitement I do not believe I have seen about a book since I was that age.

The only sign, aside from the blood, that she is not a normal girl interested in magic she was never allowed to have, an insane thought in itself, is that even the slightest sounds catch her attention. It is like she is expecting an attack from the walls, even reassuring her she is perfectly safe in the chamber of a noble has done nothing to ease her awareness.

If it wasn't for the pure disarray her form displayed, from buildups of sweat visibly attached to her body like she hadn't showered in days, if not weeks, or the fact that she seemingly found nothing wrong with the state of her dress, I would be tempted to say I was wrong in my assumption.

Tempted, but being tempted does not mean I would be right. The fact stands that she took to her new fate as my familiar without even the slightest hesitation. She acted as if even the most rudimentary of questions would cause me to walk away, as if she was the one who gained from her new status as my servant.

I suppose I could buy into that if she was a simple commoner, the change from eventual bar maiden or simple farmer to a familiar of the esteemed noble Valliere family would actually be a massive step up for them. In theory, it would be like gaining the status of a handmaiden.

But she isn't a simple commoner. Even without accounting for the dress, the speed at which she is flipping through even the most basic magical books I own is a significant tell of her education. Why one would bother to teach their Child of War how to read quickly I have no idea, but commoners are rarely able to read at all, let alone with notable speed. Just another confusing tally on the growing list of reasons I do not understand the familiar I summoned.

As a noble, becoming a familiar is a clear step down in status. Human familiars do not happen, so to be a familiar of a noble is to be considered animal, that of a glorified pet. No noble would stand for that if they could fight it, not even if I am a member of a family as famous as the Valliere. It would be a step down so harsh as to almost be slavery-my thoughts crash, is this slavery? Slavery is bad, evil, a warning of a line we as nobles are given from the crown directly to never cross. And yet, as I look behind me at the girl, it occurs to me that my thoughts are tiptoeing around the subject dangerously, and with a pattern.

If she was a commoner, the thought would never occur to me. I would treat her like a servant, feed her, clothe her when needed, perhaps even pay her if she found she needed the money.

She isn't a commoner.

I open my mouth to speak, to fix this mistake, this grave misunderstanding, before someone else realizes what I have done. "Adeline?" I ask, my voice coming out slightly hoarse. The girl looks up from my book, giving me an expression of worry.

"Where would I go about finding water for you, master?" I feel my newfound guilt drive into my stomach like cold metal, is that it? Had she put it together before me, is she only so docile because she is worried I might punish her as a slave?

"I am fine." I try to reassure her, but she must pick up on the hesitance in my slightly wavering voice, for her look of concern only grows deeper. "Truly, I just wanted to discuss the terms of your pay." I try to approach the subject directly, tossing it out in the open. Slaves are not payed, therefore she should be. The thought that familiars are not paid barely passes through my head, surely summoning a noble was never an expected result.

"I only require basic amenities. Please do not bother yourself with more than necessary, master." My jaw clenches, and my hands tighten around the book I am absently holding at my desk. The pages audibly crumpling as my fingers stiffen. The noise alerts the girl to my anger, at-least some of it, and I briefly worry that she may think I am angry with her.

"If you must, I would greatly appreciate a new dress, and perhaps a bath." She speaks quickly, presumably to appease me. Damn-it…

"I cannot promise you one of such high quality," I silently cringe at the idea that the blood soaked rags in front of me were once an elegant dress beyond what most commoners could ever hope to wear, "but I can certainly find you a new dress. And with it, a bath." I finish, and she smiles widely before looking back to the pages of the book on basic magic theory in her hands.

"Thank-you." She says softly, and at the reminder that at the very least she doesn't act broken, I feel a lot of my previous anger drain itself. I wonder yet again, if I am being too hasty in assuming her past.

We sit for another minute, the only noise being the turn of her page a few times. The textbook is meant for child nobles to gather the basics before they ever touch the academy, so the pages aren't overly long, and include quite a few pictures. Though if she cares about them, she doesn't comment. She is about that age, perhaps she appreciates them?

"How old are you?" I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.

She looks up from the page, vibrant purple eyes gaze into mine, and from the length of her pause, I get the feeling the question is unwelcome. The first sign she has given me the whole time that she may not appreciate my summoning her. "Ten years, ten months." She answers without any of the annoyed tone I expect, and it occurs to me that perhaps she was simply having a hard time remembering her age.

Perhaps, I am jumping to conclusions too quickly. This is unlike me. I summoned someone earlier and I am too busy assuming to really even talk to the living proof. I decide this inner turmoil is not doing either of us well, and just ask. "Whatever happened to ruin your dress?" Her stare turns hard very suddenly, the vibrance in her eyes dying like it had been squashed beneath the weight of the event's heel. I momentarily regret asking, and reiterate. "I mean, was it a one time event, or a training accident?" My face flushes at how stupid I must sound. Like any mere training accident would cause, well, that.

"Billions died, please do not make light of their deaths by concerning yourself with mere clothing." Her voice is so very icy, almost hostile, like the first breath outside on a snowy day.

I have to fight a nervous laugh as it bubbles in my throat as I take in the girl's statement. It is absolutely crazy, I am not even sure we have a billion people in Halkegenia, and yet even if I wasn't staring awkwardly into her eyes I could tell she definitely believes what she just said. What did they do to her?

"I'm joking." She belittles her previous statement with a grin that looks true, before looking back to her book. For some reason, I don't believe it. "Billions" She makes a sound rather similar to a snort. All I can think about were her lifeless eyes just a moment before.

One thing is for sure, I did not make a mistake. I worry for a moment that perhaps the girl needs me more than I do her. I wonder if that is how the summoning ritual is meant to be, how it chooses between one creature that fits and the next. Scholars have thought for years that there had to be some sort of extra criteria, as surely there isn't only one creature amongst the entire world's occupants that might fit an individual mage. The math simply doesn't add up, especially when it is taken into consideration that a mage can call a new familiar if their original dies.

Stalling, that's what I'm doing. Ranting to myself to prolong the time between now and my next question. To think this morning I would have given my left arm just to summon a familiar, and now I'm stalling to avoid talking to her. I wish she would make this easier, what kind of familiar causes their master this much trouble?

"You said your family name is Akuma, I can't say I recognize it, where do you hail from?" I ask, hoping my trepidation is hidden well as I speak. I do not fear my familiar's past, I tell myself. That's silly.

She doesn't bother answering, continuing in silence for a few pages of the book, my book. If she was anyone else, I'd be struck with a fury the likes of which these walls have never seen. Even as the situation is, my hand twitches, but I hold back my rage, getting away with only clenching my teeth. I am not angry at her, I chant in my head, I am not angry at her.

"Germania." She speaks finally, and my rage turns into a rush of confusion. Germania, like Kirche? How in Brimir's name did a country that housed the Von Zerbst create a girl like this?

"Germania has a system in which you can ascend to noble status through monetary influence without magic. My family was one that took that opportunity." She continues, answering a question I never even thought to ask.

"Was?" I ask before I think about it, and hold back a wince at the loaded question.

"I will admit I was not there, but I presume they fell to the very same threat they threw me out for saving them from." She says with a rather noticeable tint of pain behind her dry voice. Like a tiny blade sliding across a chalkboard.

I hear the ripple of pages, and I realize yet again I am very quickly destroying the book I borrowed between my fingers. I suppose I will have to pay for it.

"Surely they had to have a reason!" I argue in surprise, only realizing after I've said it that for some reason, I'm defending the people I'm angry at. Her visible flinch makes me regret it immediately, but what is said cannot be taken back.

"I did something stupid in a moment of panic, I thought I would lose my cousins, my uncles, and my aunts if I failed to act. Turns out, sometimes even if you save someone, you still lose them." She speaks with a sense of finality that really drives in that this is a topic I do not want to continue asking about, and another question has already arisen from my treacherous mind before I've even taken my next breath. What did you do?

I ignore my mind, searching the room for something, anything to shift the conversation to, and then I see it. The basic book of magic theory still held firm in her grip. "If you can't cast magic, why the interest in it?" I ask, and she looks up from the book for the first time since my question about her dress. The stare she gives me does little for my confidence. It is a cross between judging, sizing me up, and jealousy. What about my statement there is to be jealous of I have no idea, but I fear it isn't the insightful nature of my question.

After what feels like an hour, but is probably significantly less than even a full minute, she speaks. "My new master is a mage, therefore those I fight to protect her will be mages." Her tone is that of an adult speaking to a small child, naive and with rose glasses. I try to stop it, but I can't, the grip on the book I'm holding clenches with such ferocity I can barely call it a tome anymore. The pages far past the threshold of meaningful condition. If she notices, she doesn't say anything, which I am loathe to admit does not help me reel in my sudden rage.

I open my mouth to shout a reprimand when she cuts me off quickly.

"I am sorry." It is said with, fear? I fight back an angry laugh, like the big bad child soldier has anything to fear from the Zero.

"For what?" I snap at her before I can stop myself.

"I stepped out of line, you have been very kind to me and do not deserve my anger." She speaks with the same tint of fear as before. What is she afraid of? I wonder.

"An apology to a noble is not a simple matter of words." I hear myself speak, and she shakes slightly. What is wrong with me, why would I say that? Why would I make it worse?

"Do what you must, I will not resist." A slight tremble in her voice shocking my mind back into introspection. I want to help her, not punish her. Damn my temperament.

"If you promise to think before you speak next time, I will let you go." I give her an out, and from the look on her face she's about to - why is her facial expression one of desperation?

"Please don't, I owe you more than I could ever pay back alone." She begs, visibly moving for the first time in the discussion to push her face near the floor. What is she doing? What does being alone have to do with anything? What does she owe me? Does she want punishment?

"Then no dinner." I speak, hoping it'll ease her, but if anything she looks even more worried. Her face shooting up from the floor to give me an expression that screams 'terrified.' I briefly wonder if she is mentally sound.

"If I do not eat then…" She trails off, blushing slightly for no apparent reason before sitting back up and dusting herself off, as if her brief time closer to the floor could possibly cause more damage to the wreck that is her dress. I take the moment to feel insulted for the maid that cleans this chamber, there is not a speck of dust in sight after-all. Credit where it is due, commoner or not. That is a Valliere family creed.

"That is acceptable, master." She speaks with a newly formed relieved smile, her eyes trailing back to the pages of my book.

Desperate to start the conversation back up, perhaps make up for my lapse in judgement a moment before. What does it say about me that I could lose my temper from the words of an angry child? I bring the topic dangerously close to her family yet again. "As a noble that comes from money, surely the hay bed I have previously prepared in preparation for a familiar's arrival is a cruel joke. What would you suggest we do to remedy this problem?" It is a pointless question I feel, the obvious answer is to have a maid deliver a mattress temporarily while we work out a more permanent solution, so the confusion bending her countenance catches me quite off guard.

Her blush, however small, chills my blood with a foreboding that makes me regret the stupid question immediately. "Given our, um…" She's not sure what to say, for the first time since her summoning she has no idea what words to use. That, more than anything makes me wish to move, to leave this place before she finishes her thought.

"Event, earlier," she pauses between the two words, her blush deepening. The foreboding sense of dread gains strength. So much so, it becomes physically difficult to stop myself from running. It is as if every instinct is shouting 'leave this place now while you have the chance.'

"I had assumed I would be…" She trails off, and the now revealed shy girl's hesitance causes my trepidation rises to an all new high. This is the girl who earlier 'joked' about the death of billions. I hold on for perhaps another second before I snap. "Out with it."

"I assumed we would be sleeping together!" She shouts, and my eyebrow quirks. So she thought we'd be sleeping in the same bed? Why the build-up then, I'll admit the thought hadn't really crossed my mind, but it is certainly an efficient solution. We are both rather small, and it is a pretty big bed. The real question I have to ask myself though, is why my own sense of dread isn't going away.

Why do I even now, feel the need to fill the area between my familiar and I with as much space as physically possible? Surely there is no reason to, at-least none that I see.

Wait, event? "What event?" I ask, and her blush deepens, as if that is even possible, the hue making her pale skin rosy. There it is, that dreadful build-up again.

"Well," she fumbles with her hands, making no attempt at reading any longer as she squirms. "When I was summoned…" What could she possibly - no, it isn't possible. No country could produce two perverts of such magnitude. The magecraft at work would easily require far more willpower than even the royal family's combination technique could commit. It must be a misunderstanding.

"You kissed me, told me I was yours, and then rushed me to your room!" ...My brain halts, my vision blurring reality as I follow the built-up urge to move. Somewhere, anywhere but right here, right now. I lose track of time, and it isn't until I am standing in a very familiar clearing in the forest that I realize where I've gone. The shattered trunks and toppled trees are a clear enough indication.

This is my testing ground, the place I go when I practice magic until I collapse into whatever crater I've recently dug beneath my feet.

I've always wondered what the odds are that no one has ever found it before, it isn't very far from the school. Just enough distance to stop the sounds from reaching my classmates.

Before I have even taken a moment to catch my breath, my wand is in my hand and I've shouted the first cry of 'fireball', a downed tree exploding every which way.

I cast again and again, the overflow of conflicting emotions over the last few hours releasing themselves blindly in the careless destruction. I don't even slow down when a chunk of bark flies by my head, cutting into my cheek as it passes.

The haze allows me to stop thinking, something I have been wanting to do for the past hour, and just release myself into my magic. Every misunderstanding, every uncontrollable bit of rage bites through into reality as spell failures form. Failures, everyone says. Can a failure reduce a forest clearing to broken remains? Can a failure leave craters three times her size with but a flick of her wrist?

Yes, yes it could, because it is, I think as I slow down, my blissful haze leaving me as I collapse against one of the only trees left. As I take in the clearing, I realize that if no one had found it before, there is no way they haven't now. Not that it matters, the damage I have just now done is monumental. Far more than any of my previous attempts, as if my first success earlier had unlocked hidden depths of willpower I didn't know I had.

"Tch." Even if I still wanted this clearing, it'd be worthless. Even the very dirt beneath it littered with the remains of the resources that once made it valuable to me.

"My master is very scary." The girl I had just recently run from says as she comes into view, walking to and then standing just a few feet away. She has a pleased smile on her face as she looks around, and then gives me that same look from earlier. That judgmental look mixed with jealousy, though this time there is even a little awe. I can't imagine what she would be in awe about though, let alone jealousy. Even this display is only a success because I had no intentions of succeeding.

"Your master is a joke." I answer back, forcing myself not to cry. She wasn't supposed to see this, proof of what I am. Not yet.

"No." She says with an authority I haven't yet heard from her, yet it sounds like it fits her. Perhaps, in her other life, she would have grown up to be a commander in the Germanian military. If they let magicless nobles into such positions. "My master is a very scary, very powerful mage." She looks at me once again like a naive child, and this time I do not have the will to rebuke her.

I can't stop myself, the tears begin to flow steadily, energy I was not aware I had flows out of my eye sockets, and I rub my face in an attempt to make it stop. To not embarrass myself in front of my familiar on our first day by crying while covered in bark, to at-least make it one day. Damn-it!

I feel soft, child-like arms wrap around me, before pulling me towards them with an incredible strength I am not sure I could fight even at my optimum. The back of my head coming to a rest against the shoulder of someone shorter than me is an interesting and new experience, not that it stops the tears.

"I understand, let it out." She whispers, and I doubt her. I doubt her so much, but the tears don't stop flowing.

How could she ever understand what it is like to constantly be rejected for who you are, for something decided against your will at birth? Something that no matter how hard you fight, you can never get past?

She couldn't, and yet, despite that, I take relief in her hollow attempt to understand. Because she's trying, when no one else will.


	3. A1-CH-2-Caution: Wet Floor Here

As I sit in my chair, looking at the twin moons hanging in the sky peacefully outside my window, I take a moment to berate myself. Just a few hours earlier I failed my first self-appointed task since my first success, to not lose my temper then break down like a child in front of my familiar. "I'm a Zero once again," I whisper to myself.

Her small embrace reminded me of Cattleya I tell myself, not that it makes any sense. Cattleya has always been much larger than me. Cattleya, I thought after I had regained rational thought, would be ashamed that I had forgotten about her. She understood me, or at the very least tried. I am not alone, and never have been. My familiar's care is not a new concept to me, regardless of what I may have thought in the heat of the moment.

I hear a creak as my door opens slowly as if worried that it might wake me up. Turning around I am caught by the sight of my familiar in a rather plain green. Where her arms and legs were previously covered completely, now their snow like, untouched skin is clear to see. It isn't until you get a good look at perfectly undamaged skin that you realize that yours is anything but. One of those perspective changers I suppose, like when the temperature gradually rises and you don't realize it until someone points it out. Though it does raise questions as to how a Child of War has managed to get away without even marks from the sun. Is it possible this is the first time her skin has been shown since birth? Bah, I laugh at the prospect. It is ridiculous, and most importantly, completely irrelevant.

The small, or large based on perspective, sword at her hip is held in place with a belt that looks like it was hastily stitched into the fabric solely for serving that purpose. Without the grime and knots to hold it in place her bright green hair trails far down her back, stopping as it reaches the hilt of her sword. On her other hip rests the accessory I had earlier misjudged. It is clear to me now that without magic, it is more than likely in fact a pistol.

Most importantly, at least as far as my floor is concerned, she's dripping from her bath, as if she couldn't be bothered to use a towel. Perhaps they don't have them in Germania? I decide to look into it tomorrow. I don't really feel like talking.

"We need to talk about earlier." Or now, I suppose we could talk now if she really feels it is important.

"Could we just pretend that didn't happen?" I ask hopefully, absentmindedly chewing on the back end of a stray quill that was on my desk. "We could start over, hello, my name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, you are?" I hold out my hand in the small hope that she will take my offer, and as it turns out, Adeline Akuma is not one for starting over. Very little surprise there I suppose. Well, at least I tried.

"As your familiar, I am to protect you." Well, she has certainly taken a bold understanding of the role I think. She will also need to help gather regents if I should ever need them, but for now, I choose not to correct her. "I can not do that if you run away from me when you are upset." I wince at the reminder, why can't she just let it go? It has been less than a day and already I feel as if there are eggshells everywhere and I can't help but stomp.

"I'll admit that was a mistake." I attempt to meet her halfway.

"Mistakes do not tend to end in massive property damage. That was the start of a problem." I'm being lectured by a child bereft of magic. The fact that said child is only a few inches shorter than me does nothing to lessen the blow to my pride.

It certainly doesn't help how close she unknowingly struck to an already festering wound. "What would you have me do next time then?" I ask testily, narrowly avoiding gritting my teeth. You'd think she'd be grateful for the bath and dress… My floor is soaked, did she even wait a moment after jumping out of her bath to rush to me?

Of course not. I dare say, were she in any more of a hurry, she wouldn't have dressed at all.

The thought conjures up an amusing image 'Zero's new familiar streaks through the halls, flinging bathwater on unsuspecting students.' At least it would freshen up their list of insults. They've begun to get a bit stale, lately.

"I would have you speak to me when you feel pent up, instead of flying away on your heels. Do you have any idea how worried I was when I approached your position and heard rapid fire explosions?" I can't say I thought of it that way. I am so used to the sound of my explosions that I failed to consider what a Child of War might think upon hearing one.

"In my defense, you outright stated you thought I planned to- you thought I would...Take you into my bed, and defile you!" That, at the very least, is a point I feel strongly she can not counter.

She squirms a little bit, like she knows she's walking into embarrassment, but is about to do it anyway. I briefly wonder what it is. "That was a mistake."

"Mistakes do not tend to end in massive property damage," I repeat her own line back at her, and she flushes.

She pouts silently, looking over my shoulder outside my window, in an attempt to avoid eye contact, and her eyes widen. I turn my eyes to match her sight and see nothing amiss. Perhaps there was a shooting star, or Tabitha's dragon flew by? Surely a dragon would be a surprising sight for her. When I turn back her expression has reverted back to normal. At the very least, whatever she saw wasn't shell-shocking.

I plan to take back the advantage, and almost open my mouth when I hear my stomach growl. As it turns out, the both of us missed dinner, not just her. How fitting. "If it would please you, I saw quite a few animals on our trek back earlier that would make a fine meal."

Does she, really think I would want her to hunt for us? I just left her with a servant not too long ago, she has to know we have a full staff on hand. "That simply won't do, it isn't too late, surely the chef wouldn't mind catering to us."

She blinks, as if not sure she heard me, or at the very least rethinking something. "Us?" She asks with notable hesitance. Strange, of course, us, why wouldn't she - "Yes us, dinner was hours ago." Strangely, she does not seem relieved at my use of loopholes, even if it does end in food. She nods anyway and then follows silently as I get up and leave the room.

Luckily the only distraction on our way to the dining hall is Guiche with some poor naive first year. I ignore him and his newest victim entirely, but Adeline gives the scene far more attention than I would like as we pass by. My only solace is that she is far too young for the fop to chase even if she were to find an interest. Though I suppose I should give a warning. "Pay him no mind, he's not worth the time," I speak, and she gives me a look. I'll admit to having a harder time reading her than I would like, while some of her expressions are childlike and morph her entire face, some of them are rather subtle and hard to distinguish. The clearest I can make out is that she is most definitely displeased.

After a few moments, it becomes clear she has no intentions of voicing her thoughts, so I prod her. "Ecu for your thoughts?"

She hesitates for a second, but only a second. "Excuse my audacity master, but I find it pertinent to express that I feel no one is worth less than a few seconds of my time."

"What about criminals?" I ask, I'll admit I am curious.

"You should never ignore a criminal, lest you find a blade in your spine. Why, is he a threat? I could take care of him if it would please you." Her change in tone, or perhaps it would be better stated as a lack of tone change, brings forth a rapidly growing feeling of chilled blood. One I am growing annoyingly familiar with.

I pause my steps instantly, and she stops just as quickly, as if she was watching me more than the environment, or at the very least expecting my pause. "Do not 'take care of' any of my classmates." I give an order, more than a little afraid at what might have occurred when I left her with the servant. Could that be why she didn't bother drying off, was she running from the scene of some heinous crime? No, that's crazy, she would have said something before now. Perhaps I am hungrier than I thought.

She giggles lightly, not easing me nearly as much as I assume she thinks the action is supposed to. "As you wish, master."

The rest of the walk passes with no incident..

* * *

The dining hall is of the finest designs. Three massive tables spread across almost the entirety of its marble floor, checkered like designs lay below our feet, and stone statues depicting figures with weapons, shields, and armor mark the walls.

At the other end of the room from the door where we stand, is a pair of massive windows that during the day would let in natural light to aid the sparkling floors in setting the almost magical scene that any young noble at Tristain's magical academy would recognize.

Not now, however, now the hall is rather dark, the only light being moonlight let in from the twin moons behind us. "Anyone home?" My familiar cracks a joke from beside me, her voice echoing in the long hall. And I can't help but play along. "Who, who?"

I had assumed that as a school for nobles, there would be a number of entitled students who would request evening snacks, meaning the hall would at least have a lone member of the staff on hand. As if mourning the loss of whatever meal of beauty was left after the other nobles partook in dinner, my stomach loudly protests with another growl.

Turning my head, my Familiar almost looks relieved for some reason. I ignore it as a trick of the poor lighting. "Hunting?" She asks, sounding almost eager. I nod reluctantly, not liking the idea of subjecting my familiar to more bloodshed, furry creatures or not. I take solace in the fact that she suggested the idea.

* * *

As I sit around a fire made with some sort of commoner trick my familiar no doubt had to pick up for this apparent passion of hers, reluctantly nibbling at some meat on a stick, I find myself thinking about what an interesting event watching Adeline hunt was. Yes, watching. When I had assumed she would stick to the ground and require my help, she instead took off into the trees darting from branch to branch like some kind of possessed monkey.

It was certainly not graceful, or even easy to follow, but sure enough a minute or so later she had dropped down and started dragging me to a rather small clearing before gathering wood and making a small fire.

I couldn't bare to look to find out whatever she had caught, but it was definitely small, the meat on this stick isn't exactly overflowing. I also have to wonder why she chose a stick, and just how clean it is. Am I perhaps putting too much trust in her?

As I take another reluctant 'bite', I take note of my familiar, gleefully staring into her flaming creation. "Where's yours?" I ask, noticing she isn't eating anything.

"I already ate it." She informs me without looking up from the fire. I choose not to question it, even if I didn't see her cook it. After all, my eyes are rather heavy, telling me it is well past time for bed, meaning it is not the time to be making judgments involving her. Though that doesn't stop the slightest tints of irritation at the fact that I do not always appear worth her full attention. Perhaps that is something to discuss in the future when I am aware enough to be sure it is a rational concern.

The strange thing is, despite how hectic today has been, she doesn't look even a little tired. Was I that energetic at her age?

* * *

As I lay in bed, my familiar sleeps next to me quite soundly. Her breathing soft and slow. While awake she looks guarded, perhaps even on edge, but in this moment she has a touch of innocence. And not just because the moonlight on her skin is quite literally causing an almost luminescent effect. It is actually kind of bright...Oww, my eyes. Tomorrow, I am resolved to ask her to tone it down.

Looking back on it, It is strange. The amount of work it took to convince her to lay down next to me was insane. The moment she realized I wasn't completely comfortable with the idea given our previous misunderstanding, despite being the one trying to coax her under the covers, she started throwing out excuses to stay out of the bed, rapidly growing ridiculous in nature.

Before I was finally irritated enough to simply order her to get in the bed, she had gone as far as to claim she didn't need sleep. A claim proven very wrong shortly after, as the second her head hit the pillow she was unconscious.

That was another strange quirk to her personality, whether it is an asset or not. When I first realized my summon was a noble, back in the explosion from the summoning, I worried that she would be adverse to serving me. I know I would be, if I was taken from my home or this academy, forced to adapt to a new setting, demanded to follow the orders of some girl I had never met. I cringe at the thought, before throwing it aside. No way I would be ok with that.

Instead, even if it is only the first day and therefore lacking in quantity of examples, she has shown excitement at the prospect of serving me. Stranger yet, the moment I phrase my request as an order, she folds without even the slightest argument I would normally expect from fellow nobility.

A part of me worries what her motive is, that perhaps this is a ruse of some sort. That there is some loophole I do not know of, and that when given the chance she'll take advantage of it. Only the knowledge that this is paranoia allows me to feel comfortable. Healthy paranoia perhaps, but paranoia nonetheless.

The fact that she has given me a reason to believe she is happy to serve me because she was otherwise living on the streets does little to ebb at my worries. Surely she would be plotting some way to gain back her position.

Or the topic of her previously family in general. What threat could she have been thrown out for stopping? What did she do? As her master, her actions reflect on me. Am I in danger of suffering the same fate if she repeats the same course? Is she perhaps some wanted criminal? It is clear she does not wish to elaborate on what she did, and I do not wish to force her, but as the youngest daughter of Duke Valliere, I need to know. As much as the thought bothers me, my only recourse aside from ordering her to tell me is to ask Kirche if she knows anything.

Surely she would have heard of this 'Akuma' family, it is her country after all.

My eyes droop, my ability to fend off rest failing rapidly in the face of the long and stressful day. Classes are canceled tomorrow, I think as reality fades, perhaps the extra time will shine answers into this shadow of mystery.

* * *

Whew.

I had about half this chapter written before I even posted the second one, but the second half fought with me like a hydra. And until now, I did not have any flames.

You've probably noticed by now that Louise's vocabulary is improved to a small extent. I attempted to keep similar quirks to contain the same spice, but it occurs to me that as the third scion of one of the most powerful noble houses in the country, her vocabulary should at the very least not look like that of a third grader who owns a dictionary. I choose to believe her language use is more of a design choice to make the series easier to parse, and less a reflection of her actual character and intelligence level.

Aside from this, I strive to try and keep Louise as in character as possible for any given situation, perhaps gradually changing her as the story moves. (Though certainly not this quickly, three chapters in or not it has still only been one day. Next chapter we get to move into canon. Or at the very least, derailing canon.)

So if you happen to notice her acting wildly out of character, feel free to call me on it in either review or PM. I may not agree, but I will try to respond with an explanation if I do not. And who knows, maybe I will agree, and try to fix it in the future.

(Edited on 7/25/2016 with the help of a bro)


	4. A1-CH-3-Dawn of the first day

According to the ruined book on my desk, Children of War don't suffer night terrors. They can't, the fight is all they know, so while their dreams are filled with bloodshed, they simply can't be affected.

As my shoulders shake along with the rhythm of whimpers and trembles coming from the small girl in my arms, I am glad that I already vowed to pay for the book, because I am going to burn the damn thing in the morning. Let it be damned to the same place as this girl's family, for it shall never misinform someone in this position again!

With a sound that is suspiciously like a squeak, her tremors double in intensity. Fear, it said, the book said they couldn't feel fear. _If this isn't fear what is?_

I know, as I return the favor this girl allowed me earlier, holding her close as any good master would, that I should feel pity. At the very least, empathy. I cannot, I do not have even the faintest clue what she is feeling, and trying contemplate it is well beyond my capabilities after having been woken up in the middle of the night. Instead, I am very angry. Only my efforts to retain what I hope is a comforting grip around the deceptively strong girl stop me from, how was it she said it, flying on my heels, and destroying something myself.

"No…" It comes quietly with another whimper, as if an unimportant afterthought, and yet the horror lacing it almost causes me to lose my grip. "Zeno!" This time I actually do lose my grip as she bursts forward, her eyes shooting open as she kneels forward, her form wracked with quick and heavy breaths. We both bear silence for a few agonizing minutes, she presumably wanting to avoid the topic, and I willing to let her have that.

Finally, after what feels like more time than I was asleep in the first place, she turns her head slightly, allowing me to see her purple eyes wet with tears. "I am sorry." She laments, and a strange feeling in my throat stops me from doing anything but nodding.

She moves, slowly slipping off the bed. "I will sleep elsewhere."

Suddenly, as if Brimir himself is whispering into my ear, I know with absolute certainty that I cannot allow her to leave this bed.

Before I even know what I'm doing I've moved forward and caught her arm. "I did not tell you to leave." I force out, and it comes out much more aggressive than I meant it. I expect her to try and rip her arm from my grasp, having proved herself stronger than me just a few moments before. Yet instead of even the most basic signs of defiance, she warily sits back down on the edge of the bed, allowing her eyes to trail to mine. Again, I am struck with a strange emotion I had not planned for. For with the moonlight reflecting off her wet face, she is insanely adorable. I narrowly avoid tackling her into a hug, and count the success in the new list I started yesterday.

Summoned a familiar, didn't tackle her in the dead of night while she cried after having night terrors. Soon this list will be massive.

"Would you like to talk about it?" I try, and she shakes her head instantly as if reflex. I will myself not to feel annoyed with her. Surely it will take more than one day to coax her to open up.

Yet, as I give up she opens her mouth and speaks anyway. "He... " She pauses for a moment, a slight hiccup in her breathing. "He was an idiot." There is no heat in her proclamation, cold sorrow replacing it like creeping frost.

"Who?" I will myself to ask, finding myself oddly fearful of the answer.

"Zeno." Noticing my confusion, and curiosity, she continues. "He took me in after I left home. He taught me what I needed to survive."

"Like how to use a sword?" I ask. "No." She shakes her head. "Zeno taught me how to run, how to hide, how to hunt. How to smile again." She makes the same smile she made earlier, the one when she made that 'joke,' and just like before it looks perfect, before it fades back to her solemn expression.

"Is he still in Germania? We could find him." I know using her vulnerability in the moonlight to dig for info is wrong, but at this moment I can't even begin to feel bad.

She shakes her head. "No." She speaks with such certainty, that I hardly even recognize my question before it has left my mouth. "He's dead?"

She nods, slowly. I feel a foreign twinge in my chest.

We sit in silence again for a long time, the twin moons outside mocking us as they shift position before I finally speak up. "Classes are canceled for us second-years tomorrow, so we can sleep in."

She gives me a reluctant nod, as if the very idea of going back to sleep is a bitter candy, and for her, it probably is. "Is there any way we could better your sleep?" I ask, reaching for anything really, and am surprised when she reluctantly nods again. We sit in silence for another few moments before I open my mouth to ask what and catch her gaze. _Her weapons._ Of course, a Child of War would feel more comfortable armed. It occurs to me that is probably the real reason she fought with me about sleeping in the bed. She couldn't ask me to allow her weapons in, how could I possibly understand she needs them? Though the fact that she didn't even try concerns me. Surely if she explained it I would be more open, I don't come off that stubborn, do I?

A day ago I would have called anyone was crazy for even implying the idea of bringing their weapons to bed, and perhaps I have lost some of my beloved sanity in my newfound success. For the unvoiced question on the tip of her tongue doesn't even escape before I've given the only answer I can imagine. "Grab them."

She moves, slowly off the bed, over to her green pack and weaponry, before coming back with them in hand. It is with great relief for me that she does not sleep with them directly attached to her. For even if that would help her sleep, I imagine I would be kept awake worrying. Instead, she rests the sword in its sheath between the wall and the bed. The pistol is, after apparently needing to double check it for something called a 'safety,' and 'magazine,' tied to the overhead piece of the bed in its holster.

"Thank you." She whispers as she lays back down.

"You're welcome," I whisper back after a moment. Though from her soft and slow breathing, she's already back to sleep.

Remarkable, that the one who had the night terror is already asleep, yet I lay awake, thinking about it.

* * *

I have never been the lightest of sleepers, but that certainly isn't to say I am a heavy sleeper either. Normally I wouldn't wake up to a light rap on the door, but if you were to enter my room I should under pretty much any circumstances, buck right up.

Apparently, this doesn't extend towards thieves, as when I open my eyes on this morning, noting by the position of the sun that it actually isn't much later than I had originally intended to awaken, something appears to be missing.

I look around as I sit up, the natural light flooding the room and revealing every nook to me.

I sit on my bed for a minute or so, just taking it all in, trying to figure out what is missing. After a bit more of coming up without conclusion, I move to my dresser and start gathering my clothes for the day. As I begin to put them on, I am hit with a strange clarification, like what I'm missing has something to do with them. I allowing my confusion to show on my face animatedly, in the comfort of my own room my confusion cannot be a sign of weakness after all.

Am I missing a servant? That's crazy, why would I keep a servant in my room? Surely I would remember something like that.

It is as I finishing donning my mantle, and am about to set off for breakfast, that it hits me like a horseshoe. I am not particularly hungry.

My eyes dart to my desk and take in the destroyed book for the first time, remembering my promise to burn the damn thing I give it a glare. What I am missing is my familiar, a small girl who is more than likely currently getting into trouble.

As my heart rate booms, I rational to myself that while she is a small and strange girl wandering around noble property, she is also in-fact a noble. Then, my eyes lock onto what I was truly realizing was missing as I awoke. Not the girl, no, she'll be fine. I was noticing the lack of sword at the side of the bed, and gun in the overhead.

With this my mind catches up with my heart rate. I am clearly freaking out, not because there is a ten-year-old noble walking around more than likely causing trouble, but because there is an armed and likely paranoid ten year old noble walking around more than likely causing trouble.

I quickly prepare and throw my door open, only to be met with the sight of flaming red hair, but mostly, just huge tanned melons in my face. I quickly name the melons. "Kirche." Has she been waiting for me outside my door? How long has she been here?

"Good morning, Louise." She speaks, her voice filled with a charm that lulls me into a sense of deep annoyance.

"What do you want?" I groan.

"You know, your familiar at-least said good morning back." Probably because she didn't know to hate you yet, I'll have to rectify that at my nearest convenience. Or, perhaps she set up some grand joke only I will get. That would be nice, but perhaps far too much to ask after one day.

"How did that go, did the two of you exchange names before you decided to take her home?" That, came out far less insulting than I'd planned it…

"Actually no, she came around the corner head first into my chest, and exclaimed 'Good morning boobs!' Given who her master is I expected a someone less…"

Oddly energetic at complete random, crazy, perverted, Germanian? Wait, she didn't deny taking her 'home.' And her room is right there.

I swear to Brimir if she shamelessly seduced my new perverted familiar, I will take the child's sword and ram it through those massive bags of fat one inch at a time. I will burn and bury her corpse with the book on my desk, and hide the evidence of both righteous acts in the same ground! I will get away with it too, for the founder will surely shine his grace upon me for such a noble act!

"Tell me what you did to her," I order with as much authority in my tone as I can muster, and surprisingly, she answers clearly.

"You worry too much, I was a perfect lady. If anyone was aggressive in their approach it was her." She winks, and I am about half a second from opening an egg of explosion in her face when she explains.

"She wanted to talk about our homeland, it was nostalgic." Somehow I sincerely doubt Adeline found it as enjoyable as Kirche did.

"So I will not find her held captive if I blow open your door?" I ask as I take out my wand and point it at said door for effect.

"Shouldn't it be your job to keep track of your personal ex-noble servant?" Ex-noble? How did she get that out of her? It took me hours!

I give her my harshest on command glare, and her mocking grin doesn't lower even a little.

"I guess that would be expecting too much of you, Louise the Zero. She was last seen entering professor Colbert's lab, he said he wanted to study her runes."

I don't thank her as I walk away, taking a much more sedate pace than I originally was going when leaving my room. I know I can trust Colbert, he is the type to put others above himself, so there's no way he'll set off any strange behavior in the young girl.

Booooom, I'm caught off guard as the ground below me shakes. Suddenly my sedate pace turns into a sprint as I throw myself around shocked and unnerved students. Even if Kirche hadn't just told me, I'd know where that came from.

As a small smoke cloud comes into view, I relax a little, both the professor and Adeline are safely outside of the workshop. Colbert is covered in soot but comparatively, it looks like Adeline stumbled onto the scene and fell over, more than was actually caught in the blast. The only real sign that she was even in there is a few coughs as she looks to Colbert with a grin.

"That," she coughs a few times into her left fist, her right one holding her up, "did not go as planned, eh professor?"

He chuckles lightly as if he didn't just explode. I wonder if his workshop, or as Kirche called it his 'lab', was designed to withstand whatever they just did.

"Explain yourselves," I demand as I close the gap.

"Well you see it all started when I woke up earlier, I am used to being rather active, so sleeping in just isn't something I can do." She begins, apparently thinking I want the story from the beginning. I choose not to correct her. "I decided not to disturb you, and felt I should use the time wisely. So after a minute to collect my things I was on my way. Shortly after that I met up with, I shit you not, a living, breathing, walking pair of-" "Ehem." I stop her. I don't exactly appreciate her speaking like that in front of other nobility to begin with, it's unbecoming. The fact that it is a teacher just makes it worse.

"Sorry. Long story short, I went on an adventure, met some people, eventually met the professor here, and agreed to go alone into his creepy lab." The indignant 'hey' from the professor is not lost on me.

"That doesn't explain the explosion."

"He has a ton of cool stuff in there, I might have gotten carried away and touched something I shouldn't have." I look to the professor, who is, jittery at the moment, to say the least.

"It's ok, it was just a simple prototype, what is important is that neither of us is hurt." He stands, and I take a moment to appreciate just how well he is taking my familiar blowing up his lab. I look to her, her expression wide and sheepish as she takes Colbert's example and stands.

"I only wish he had given me more warning before it exploded in my face." I'm not quite sure why, but Kirche, who I just now realize followed me here, apparently thinks that is the funniest thing she has ever heard. At-least, if her rather loud laughter in between gasps for air is any sign. I honestly don't get the joke, but judging by who Kirche is, and the pleased look on the small girl in front of me, I think I'm better off not knowing. Germanians perverts.

I decide to ignore the apparent joke, bowing my head slightly and apologizing to the professor, Adeline and Kirche follow my example. Though Kirche's motive is probably more to undermine mine than any legitimate apology. After-all, what would she have to apologize for?

My stomach growls slightly, and I realize the excitement so far must have tipped the balance into hunger. "We have the day off to communicate, let's start over breakfast." I smile warmly at Adeline, and she returns it, before giving me her hand and letting me pull her away from the two.

* * *

The walk to the Alviss dining hall is rather uneventful. We get a few stares but, most of them appear to be directed at Adeline. In any other situation I would be happy to have a break, but here it just makes me wonder what the girl did before I woke up. It couldn't have been more than an hour or so, after-all. Then no-one would have been up to witness a scene.

Once we're there, I notice uneasy expressions gracing my familiar's face as she looks back and forth at the food. I briefly wonder if she has some sort of bad experience with dining halls.

When we get to our seats, she pulls out my chair without even having to be prompted. Her willingness to treat me as her master should reassure me, but really it just makes me question when she learned how to make serving seem so natural. She should be seething at the very idea.

I blow those thoughts away with the sight of the food. There will be time for that later. Today is about bonding.

After a moment I notice she hasn't sat down, and I glare at her,looking from her to the chair. She gets the message and sits down a moment later, but she is agonizingly slow about it. I find myself wanting to inform her the chair isn't going to bite her. "We're safe here." I whisper to her instead, holding back my snark, and she nods to signify she heard me. Sadly, this doesn't make her any less antsy, or stiff.

I decide to dig in, as much as a noble such as myself can 'dig in' anyway. A wonderful banquet before me. As I take my first few small bites, savoring the array of flavors ready, something small takes my attention.

Something small, and sitting next to me, staring at her food like it's going to grow claws and attack. Is she afraid of food? That would be nuts, but then, as far as I can tell she is nuts. A memory of last night arrives. "You didn't eat last night, did you?"

She looks up, subconsciously moving away from the evil contents of her plate as she replies. "I did."

"Prove it," I reply, gesturing towards her plate, and she shakes her head, slowly sliding her seat away. "I order you to eat."

* * *

This is terrible." I grumble. My head leans upon a wall, and my forehead aches.

"You know most people use their palm, it is called a facepalm." The source of my current situation snidely remarks behind me.

"Most people's familiar aren't afraid of food!" I bite back.

"I am not afraid of food." She tries to enforce. "It simply caught me by surprise. Some would call it an ambush, or at the very least a flanking."

I allow my peripheral vision to take in my familiar standing in the grass. She is covered in food and what would be considered vomit if it had even properly made it down her throat. A clear reminder that when she started spewing projectile offensive, I fled to the cover of the outside.

"Couldn't you have at-least have given a better warning than shouting 'hydro pump' at the top of your lungs? What does that even mean?" I groan as I look down at my stained uniform. For I too, am covered in her food.

She giggles at that, actually giggles, before replying with a serious and stern voice well betrayed by her giddy expression. "It had to be done, milady."

"Shouldn't you be a little more mature?" I ask, and she shakes her head. "I'm ten."

"I get that, but…" I stop, not sure if I want to voice the term in front of her. What if she freaks out, or worse, she decides to cast 'hydro pump' again?

"But?" She tilts her head, making a show of examining me. "Well go on, leaving me hanging like that is kind of rude."

Right, because throwing up on your master with enthusiasm isn't rude. "Well you know, the whole child of war, thing."

"Child of war? That is rather dramatic, did you come up with that during my bath?"

I sputter. "Am I wrong?" I almost plead. Maybe it was a bear attack or something, that would be fantastic!

"No, it is accurate in definition. I would just prefer something like 'survivor.' 'Walker of the abyss.' Maybe, I don't know, at the very least something more memorable than 'chicken chaser.'

"What?"

"Legends are all about your titles you know? I feel I deserve a good one after all that, one that'll stick with me. 'Child of war' is probably going to stop sounding cool when my chest grows out in a few years. Besides, can you imagine if I ever got a government job? 'Hey, it's our mayor, Miss Child of War!' The PR backlash would be insane."

I blink, a few times. "Mayor? PR?"

"Sorry, it is a Germanian thing." As she says that her eyes dart back and forth, and I decide to just let her have this one.

"So you promise me you do eat, and you are not afraid of food?" I ask, and she nods enthusiastically. Not quite as enthusiastically as her previous mounted offense, but sure enough enthusiastic.

"I am just unable to process anything but meat." At my look, she shoves both her open palms in front of her for some reason. "I am not picky, it is a birth defect, I swear. I did eat last night, you were just too tired to notice."

"Strange, but stranger defects have occurred." I look to my wand with a tinge of shame. "Why didn't you inform me of this before you decided to unleash your vengeance upon my fellow nobles?"

"Well I tried, but then you gave an order, and-"

"So you're saying it's my fault?" My glimpse becomes a grasp as I pull out my wand.

"No, of course not. I just didn't…" She trails off before falling to a kneel. "I will accept punishment."

I roll my eyes. I'm dramatic, but when she decides to go full knight mode it's noble. "Well since you're afraid of food, I certainly can't starve you." Her face is priceless. "What would you find a fitting punishment?" I tease, and her eyes glint. I think I may have summoned a shameless masochist.

"I would force me to hunt down bandits and monsters in your name."

"Why do you want to hunt down bandits and monsters?" I ask.

"Punishment! Not want." I stare at her with the deepest glare of disbelief manageable, and she cracks rather quickly. "I'm bored."

"In the past day you have been summoned from your homeland, contracted as a familiar, read half a book on the basics of magic, gotten a new dress, somehow became known throughout the school, blew up a professor's lab, and then proceeded to ruin that new dress by discovering a new element and using it to attack my class!"

"Exactly, you get it." It's like she didn't even hear me. "I've had more fun in graveyards."

"Is this going to be a problem?" I ask.

"...No?" If only she sounded as sure s she looked.

* * *

 **Hi!**

So for starters, I wanted to have more progress in this chapter, but every scene has been fighting me tooth and nail. Always a different reason too, like there are a million different reasons this chapter doesn't want progress.

So despite my wants, I have been looking for a place to end the chapter artistically.

This isn't that high point I was going for, but it is a good length, and it does leave on a joke.

not terrible.

I would also like to note I have gotten into the novel as a better reference. It is very good. Well, better, anyway. (I'll be the first to admit I like the ideas behind canon more than I do the actual story. Too many loose ends that are swept aside for more pointless harem comedy.) A lot of stuff is already planned with other sources, but I'll probably start converting some things to be novel based in a few chapters.

PS. To anyone worried if I'm using Adeline's humor to set something kind of depraved up? Don't be.


	5. A1-CH-3-2-A Test of skill

"Boobs!" The little green dress wearing mass of chaotic energy shouts as she marches up to the fiery Germanian. "Just who I wanted to see."

The Germanian isn't really sure whether to be amused by the antic or not. On one hand, it really was quite novel to hear such an address from such a tiny thing. On the other hand, even she has limits, and the idea of that nickname actually catching on is one of them. Mostly that it wouldn't seem nearly as novel coming from _everyone else._ And she of all people knows how quickly the rumor mill in this forsaken school works. She sort of runs it after-all. Well, not 'runs it' in the direct sense, but when she isn't contributing to it with her mouth, other people are doing the same about her.

Louise thinks she had no idea the power of being hit with words. Just the thought makes her want to laugh. The Valliere as a whole need to lighten up and quickly. There is no 'top' of the mill, everyone gets hit just as hard. The pinkette just can't handle the heat. Then again, neither could any of her family if the stories she has been told are accurate. Perhaps the tiny blur of green will raise her tolerance. After-all, the tiny engine of 'fun' knows how it works. And she would be a very poor familiar if she didn't teach her master how to dance. Perhaps then she would _actually_ make a worthy rival. Another comical thought in itself.

"What do you want?" Kirche asks the girl, idly noting the pack of cards in the girl's pale hands with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes.

"Would you perhaps be willing to spot me some Ecu?" The sweet smile causes her to almost double take.

The urge to gasp and refuse such a blunt request for money of all thing rises, but honestly, the urge to see why exactly is a little stronger. "Why?" Is all the redhead can really get out on completely short notice. Well, that's not completely true, a one liner about 'earning it' jumps to the forefront of her mind but curiosity wins out here. Besides, she's actually not completely sure the girl wouldn't take her seriously.

"Well, I found this deck of cards and I thought, hey, why not poker? But you know poker is kind of boring when you fail to leave with everyone's money. And I'm sort of broke for, summoning related reasons..." The girl pouts.

"So you want me to cover your entrance because a Valliere wouldn't approve? Where is she anyway?" Kirche asks while looking around.

"She is looking into the Germanian government for references to 'mayors' while acting like she is studying magic, because she is thoroughly convinced a joke I made earlier will help her understand me better, and doesn't trust me to answer honestly." That is a, surprisingly honest answer, Kirche notes. "Should she?"

"Nope!~" Purple eyes close into a wide smile as she basically sings her negative. "Well, as her familiar it kind of stings just a bit, but in her defense I am cute, and you know what they say about cute girls." The green haired girl explains with a wink.

Kirche's soft amusement curls her lips. "The Germanian government doesn't have anything called a 'mayor' you know."

She giggles, "of course it doesn't." She takes the cards out of the pack with a single flick of her hand, spreading all fifty-two cards out in hand with a cheeky lip filled grin. Kirche had noticed that instantly. Unlike Louise who was too busy freaking out over unimportant things like the child she was, she could recognize the way tiny lips covered where her teeth should be involved for what it was. A way to hide guilt, a way to hide that she wasn't the kid she claimed to be, not anymore. Guilty smiles blur out of the girl in front of her every half-second. Idly, she wonders if the girl is actually any good at the card game. "But looking for it will keep her busy while we play."

"Come on, poker!" She shuffles the cards rapidly in front of her, the deck blurring with experienced hands before they flow back into their box. "I guarantee I will give you back double what you give me!"

Despite her better judgment, a little of that excitement rubs off on her, and she makes a decision. "Sure."

* * *

To say the game had gone 'well' for Kirche would be an understatement fitting of its own legend. Technically she had actually lost, and quickly, but so had everyone else at the table but Zero's familiar and Tabitha. Both of which had promised her a fine portion of their winnings if they won, for varying reasons.

No matter what happens now, the redhead is leaving with more money than she started with, a lot more. The game had sort of exploded, easily a dozen of the richer noble teens getting involved at the idea of swindling a little girl out of all her money. It was, actually pretty morally bankrupt, but she had no sort of scorn for them. They paid the price after-all.

The two remaining girls each had tricks up their sleeves, opposite tricks actually. Tabitha barely even seemed to be paying attention. Her eyes dipping over her book just in time to say the word "fold," in the dullest monotone imaginable. Her poker face was immaculate, utterly imperceivable. It is like not an ounce of her cared about the game.

"Woohoo!~" On the other hand, the familiar sings pretty much everything. She can't be read, not because she has any sort of poker face. Actually, it could be said her poker face is an open book, every single emotion flowing through lavender eyes like spoken words. She can't be read because there is nothing to read. Like right now for instance, she was absurdly excited about this hand, and looking at it as it slaps upon the table, it is very distinctly a red pair of twos.

Truly, this game had gone well for Kirche, for no matter what happened, she had learned a _lot_ about the little lass. And at the same time, had made money doing it.

* * *

 **Author's note:**

So the next chapter is basically complete, but it feels wrong... Mostly because The next chapter requires quite a bit of Kirche. Sadly, I do not have the greatest grasp of her character. Like at all. She is a wonderful character, and I have seen her done amazingly before. But in all the source material she is so flanderized that without a sex joke to turn to every three seconds I actually have an insanely hard time running her. No flow at all.

So this Omake was made to get more practice with her. It also serves to buffer in a few more hours in-story.  
Mostly though, I would like anyone who thinks they know Kirche to give me tips on this display. I really hate messing up a character and I _know_ this is bad. Even if I'm pretty sure I have the idea. Though it should be said not much is there to judge in this little omake, which in itself is a problem. Still, I thought it would be amusing for some of you. And others? Well maybe you could gleam something to advise me on.

That being said, as of this moment, this is canon.

P.S. Sorry about the weird name, fanfiction chapter naming format sucks. The official chapter title is **Chapter 3.5: A Test of skill**


	6. A1-CH-4-The Meaning of Weakness

**For those of you who have been drowning in the fluff, be prepared, a shift is made this chapter. One some will like, some will probably not like so much. Still the dominoes this chapter sets in motion will keep tumbling far into the future.**

 **I hope I got Kirche right.**

* * *

"Aughhh…" I groan as I turn another page, my head throbbing from the sheer amount of words I have chewn through in the past several hours. "It's like it's not even here." I mumble as I flip yet another page.

"That would be because it's not." A voice I could only describe as 'dark,' says from beside me, and I flip another page. "What makes you so sure?" I respond.

And dark chuckles arrive for not the first time, the room filling with the twisted display of 'sound,' if I could even call it that. "When will you just admit she lied? It has nothing to do with Germania, you knew that from the beginning. That's why you're even looking, after-all. To prove yourself wrong."

I sigh as I turn to my right, the figure speaking a shadow of a man. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say a man of shadow? Bright red eyes create an ominous glow in the library, especially with the wisps of black bleeding off his 'clothing,' if you could even call a giant black cloak that, and his dark hair. "You don't know that." I stare him down, my own pink and white eyes meeting with his red and black.

"Oh but I do." His feral grin, malicious, amused, pure evil, picks at my soul. I barely feel it as I brush it aside.

"You." I raise my finger in the air. "Are not real, you know nothing." I announce to him.

The dark chuckles begin again, the wisps flooding into the air, catching books alight and darkening the room with backwards fire, I do not flinch, I do not back down. "Tis true, I am afraid." He raises his hand, his left hand in particular, familiar runes shining brightly with a blazing mixture of reds and oranges. "I am only as real as you allow me to be, after-all."

I scoff, looking back to my book, I've already turned an extra ten pages during our discussion, i decide not to turn back. "Begone." I order.

The chuckles begin again, for a few moments I worry he has no intentions of leaving. I turn a page. "As you upon me when you are ready to _wake up._ " The last words he speaks sound feminine, suspiciously familiar as well. I turn back to him only to realize he is gone. " _Wake up._ "

* * *

I open my eyes with a deep breath, raising my head from the table where I had decided to rest it for but a brief moment. My head hurts for reasons I cannot begin to understand, though I assume it has to do with all these books strewn around me I carved through over the past few hours. The naturally lighting actually seems brighter than when I decided on my brief nap, telling me I must have overnapped till noon or more. I am being lightly shaken, and I turn my head to see the barbarian's hand tainting my shoulder with her touch. How dare she wake me, I briefly growl, I think I was having a good dream too… I can't... really remember. I think it was good. It's foggy, my head hurts more thinking about it so I stop.

"What do you want Kirche?" I asks, and she plops down beside me without a moment's hesitation. For some reason it feels like she's stealing someone else's seat, I go to say something and then the headache strikes back. Nevermind, it's a free seat, free. I revel as it subsides.

"I was in the neighborhood, was just wondering what you could possibly be tearing yourself up about, figured maybe I could help." My questioning gaze turns into a glare. No way she just wants to 'be helpful,' that is not how this works, that is not how any of this works. "Liar." I call her on it,

She picks up a book in response, not even bothering to say a word to me before reading the title aloud. "Germanian towels?" She asks, a devilish smirk overtaking her, filling me with dread. "I just needed to be sure, okay?" I answer back.

She laughs at me, a lot, putting the book down and then picking up another. "The Germanian political Hierarchy and how it impacts Tristian." She nods, "sounds like complete trash."

"It is." I groan, sinking my face back into the table. "There is nothing here. I actually have less clues than I started with."

"Do tell what it is you are even looking for?" She asks, her tone begging me on, I choose not to answer. "Perhaps something the little lass said?" I try not to move, to not inform her she was spot on. Even if it is sort of obvious, ceding ground to a Zerbst should be a capital offense. "You know I can help if she is getting to you that badly. Help you research, help you babysit…"

I snap my head up. "Babysit? Why would you even, nevermind that what makes you think I would even want you around her?"

"One question at a time, Zero, there are much more polite ways to react when someone offers their aid. Those manners you speak about for one." She smirks.

I growl back. "You wouldn't know manners if they hit you in the face, in fact!" I pull out my want and aim the tip directly at her face. It is more a gesture of blatant disrespect than it is actually an attempt to harm. As much as I would love to just deck her one sometimes, I know getting in trouble for actually harming her would only harm my situation, even if my mother would probably approve. She rolls her eyes, gently patting my hand down to the table completely unfazed. "Ask politely Louise."

She's goading me, I know she is. "Please Kirche, bestow upon me the info of why I would possibly on this planet or any planet at all, want you-mfffpm" my voice is cut out by her hand, "Manners," she chides, she is enjoying this too much. I refuse to ask again, but luckily she humors me as she takes her hand away before I start biting. "You obviously cannot be trusted with a child, so it falls to me to pick up the slack. Besides, I always wanted a little sister."

"You can't have my familiar Zerbst." I grind my teeth a little, and she gives a haughty laugh. "Do you even know where she is right now?" She asks, the raw mirth in her tone making me second guess myself.

It occurs to me that seat is where she is supposed to be, it is where I swear she just was. She ran away again, and I failed to even notice. "How long?" I ask, ashamed.

"She's been going at it with Tabitha for almost three hours now since everyone else got tired, it is actually why I came up here, they were just too much for me and watching got boring." She answers, well, half answers. That doesn't really give me any info.

I neatly swerve around the in my face innuendo there, I trust the little blue haired girl a lot more than I do this one. Though that honestly leaves me with more questions. "It has been really heated, I never knew she could get so passionate about something, really, just needed to find the right match." The red-head continues to tease, and I ignore her. Flipping through a few pages of the book in my hands before she begins again. "I wanted to offer a truce."

Less than a full twitch later my wand is in her face. "A truce? Why would I accept such a thing?" I just want to see the soot in her face, just a small explosion.

"Because you're like a hundred times as on edge as normal, and it's not even my fault. That's not fun at all. Besides, you're so messed up you're basically a puppy. Don't make me kick the puppy Zero, don't do it."

I sigh. "Even the Zerbst see fit to pity me, truly I have sunk lower than the darkest depths." I take my wand away from her face and flip the page. Somehow this exchange has both caused me to bleed and rid me of my enemy in one roll. However shall I recover now. I could probably still blow her up, call it an accident. She'd believe that right?

"Not quite pity." She answers. "I'm not offering friendship or anything strange like that, I just figure you'll be more fun to kick if I give you a few days to get back up. Besides, I bet a few days truce with you on a hand and lost, so…"

My eye flickers up to her again, seeing sincerity. As much as it hurts, I really could use a few days to just get used to everything. "First act of the truce. What is a mayor?" I ask.

"It is someone who governs a town or city." Kirche answers instantly as if expecting the question.

"P.R?" I ask, and she utters. "Public relations, when a noble does something to raise their popularity, they are helping their public relations." There it was again, she knew I was going to ask that. Did Adeline coach her? Why didn't she just tell me then!

"Does Germania really have a system for magicless nobles?" I ask, really I can't tell whether to be annoyed at whether the answer is positive or negative. On one hand that is completely insane, and an insult to the founder directly. On the other hand if it is a lie, it implies either my familiar really is magical and felt the need to keep it from me, or, well I don't want to think about it.

"Of course." Kirche answers, like it is common sense. Well, at least that is a point in Adeline's favor, even if it is a point against Germania. Really I can't say I am completely sure how I am supposed to treat my familiar. She was raised noble, so noble comes to mind, but then her very existence as a noble is ridiculous. "A commoner without the necessary riches can earn their station through a life of adventuring, gathering a savings and then buying their way in. Really it has done wonders for the attitude of the nobility in Germania, unlike here where everyone is so prudish." She finishes.

I open my mouth to ask another question, one closer to my Familiar. Specifically about the Akuma family, when heavy breathing and heavy paces catches my attention. I turn just in time to see a blonde with twin twirly hair bend over herself and gasp. "Montmorency?" I ask

She breathes a few more times, heavily, unable to speak yet forcing herself to. I briefly wonder if she ran the entire way here from wherever she was, most nobles lack in physical stamina after-all. "Kirche or me?" I ask and she points at me. "Does it have to do with Adeline?" And she nods, finally stopping her haggard gasps and righting herself. She really does pull off dignified well. "Your crazy familiar blew up and challenged my Guiche to a duel."

A pin drops somewhere across the Library, I hear it loud and clear. "You said what?" I ask dumbly.

"He pointed out that she was proof that you are weak and shouldn't be here, summoning some little commoner who pretends to be a noble. And she decided suicide via his valkyrie was better than being living proof of shame." I pull my wand and notice Kirche already has. It appears we both have the same idea of blowing her up, I briefly ponder if Kirche could even cause an explosion big enough to satisfy this one.

"Woah, not the messenger!" She throws her hands up. "I came to get you so you could stop her, who knows how much my reputation will take a hit from my boyfriend showing your familiar her place." She appears to ponder that for a moment, but I don't let her for long. "Where." I growl.

"Vestory Square." She says, and just like yesterday, my feet move before I even realize it. The need to move overtaking reason. I can hear Kirche right beside me, matching my pace instead of overtaking me. I don't bother wondering why, with her longer strides, it simply isn't that important. "Hey wait up!" Montmorency shouts behind us. We don't wait up.

* * *

As I get to Vestory Square I have to push my way through a crowd just to see, and it is a sight to see for sure.

"A familiar is only as strong as their master correct? That is what you said to me?" My familiar asks her arms wide open and spread apart, glaring at Guiche with a frost so cold my bones chill, my mouth dries, my teeth chatter, and I am not even on the receiving end of it. I briefly wonder how the fop is even standing. "So when I strike you down and grind your skull into the stones beneath my feet, it will prove how strong my master is, correct?" I cannot help but feel a sense of pride at this line, she knows how to talk, and it gives me enough confidence to stand aside. For now. She started this after-all, and I doubt Guiche is legitimately going to kill her.

Somehow, as if completely blind to the hatred being given life all around him, the aura of death that has befallen us, he has the nerve to laugh. "We're on grass."

"Oh, I will find stones to grind you into, do not worry about that." There is a sureness to it, a crisp clarity as if the universe is going to summon stones to answer her call. It is such a silly notion backed with so much drive, so much frozen malice, that I begin to worry I judged wrong. That it is not my familiar I have to worry about at all, but the ignoramus without eyes or ears before her. "Please, give me your best, I desire nothing more than to see your countenance fall in horror when you realize what you have spoken such foul words to."

He appears very alive in this scene as if the dramatic flair flowing off my familiar is as revitalizing as it is terrifying. "If that is what you wish, then I will not keep a lady waiting, even one as small, crude, and arrogant as you." A petal falls from his wand, a rose of all things, slowly to the ground, a sudden wind shifting it as if it was alight with passionate dance.

As it lands, a glow shines, and an armor-clad woman of metal grows out, gleaming in the pale sunlight.

By the long tilted line of her lips splitting her face, a hungry grin if I ever saw one, she is not at all surprised, no explanation is needed. And yet we are given one. "My runic name is "The Bronze," Guiche the Bronze, your real opponent shall be my bronze golem "Valkyrie.""

"Coward." My familiar notes aloud, and yet somehow, some deep part of me does not believe it is meant as the insult he clearly takes it as.

A moment later its fist is low, burying itself in her stomach. It happens so fast I would have missed it had I blinked, and the small girl is taken by surprise if her failure to even try to move is to be understood. She falls to her hands and knees with a gasp, and I fight back tears. "Guiche! She's a little girl!" I hear myself shout, rage beginning to fester, control falling away.

"Which is exactly why this is necessary." He answers back. "What do you think would become of her if she spoke in such a disrespectful manner to someone who couldn't recognize it for what it is? Childish boasting? No, better it is stomped out here while her life is not on the line."

"But..." My fists clench, and then it begins.

Laughter, a voice so sweet cries out from her place on the ground, elegant, filled with confidence, an echo berating my ears as she begins to stand. Her head tilts back, and the sound assaults the sky valiantly. "I give you a chance to show me your power and you waste it with chatter? For what, pointless justifications?" In this moment both the warm innocence and the cold malice that I have seen take up her form are gone, and what is left, what shimmers in her eyes, is a bitter disappointment. Disappointment and, hunger.

I want to call out to her, to tell her to stop. "Do not worry." A petite hand taps my shoulder, and I look, the blue haired girl Kirche had left her with stands, her bespectacled eyes hanging over a book as she takes in the proceedings. "No danger." She shakes her head.

"Of course there is danger!" I shout at her, my eyes flashing between her and my familiar, goading the golem in front of her. And the glimmer in her eyes, tells me she agrees, but then why tell me otherwise?

It is then that the fist from the golem launches at the child's face, and my heart stops. If a punch to the gut brought her to her knees, what would one to her face do? I would never find out, for as the strike enters within an inch of her delicate features, she moves, the fist almost touching her skin as it passes. And then again, it strikes, its arm trying to finish what its hand couldn't as it nears her head, and then again just as it is about to touch her face she moves.

Her figure bends, falling backward as her legs move up, and then in one motion her foot impacts in the golem's chin as her hands touch the grass, sending it half a dozen feet in the air; half a dozen feet more than I would ever have expected. Then, like her hands were magic, she is flung into the air in a spin which blurs her image to that of a green blotch.

Metal bends before her foot as she reaches the apex of her climb, a gust of wind tilts me off balance as a golem's head displaces the dirt beneath it, and a sickening crunch is heard as Guiche flies back- A little girl's fist outstretched where he had previously stood.

"That's it!?" She _screams_ , a frozen wasteland of rage boiling into the air, unlike anything I have seen since I left my home flickers into life like someone poured gasoline on hidden embers. It is in this moment that I understand what Tabitha meant. There was never any danger because there was only ever one combatant on the field. "You dared." She growls, drawing her blade from its sheathe, and the world slows, focus flickering into my eyes with grays and greens and blues and reds.

The 'sword' if it could even be called that gleams silver in the light, inch by inch, hundreds of nicks are shown, in any other light it would show a girl who cannot take care of her weapon, but my eyes are not fooled. The desire to kill reeks from it, screeches in the wind louder still as every single little speck on the otherwise perfect metal is drawn out. This is a sword impeccably taken care of, a companion to my familiar deeper than blood. This blade is an enemy of mankind, a legend in itself, a weapon forged in the fires of war and cooled in the blood of thousands. And it is here, to reap its reward for simply being drawn.

It is now that Guiche begins to panic, summoning more valkyrie, and they are _ripped_ apart one by one and left to turn back into the dirt from whence they came as if they were never worth her attention. "I trained to wield this blade since the moment I could walk!" She takes a step forward, and Guiche crawls one back. "It is more truthful to say I was forged for this weapon, that it was the familiar summoned and I am just the proxy!" Another step, then another, her movements quickly gaining on his efforts. "The first time I used this weapon it was to tear down forces beyond your petty comprehension." She reaches him, his panicked pleading fall on deaf ears as she kicks down into his chest with an audible crunch. His scream cries out, my vision blurs, and still, from this feeling I can tell he is lucky she is being merciful.

"And you dare insult my master?" She raises her blade into the air, "Guiche de Gramont, you do not know the meaning of weakness!" and I know, at this moment, if I do not act he will die. I lunge forward, the raw malice bleeding off of her smashing against me with every step. Fuzz overtakes my sight, before black blotches overtake the fuzz. "Stop!" I fall to my knees just a few feet away, unable to even stand this close. It is possible this rage is nothing like that of my mother's, in fact, it is even likely, one of

-I hear the scrape of metal entering its sheath. And suddenly, I can move, I can feel, breaths I wasn't even aware I was holding flow out of me, precious oxygen replacing them with desperation. A moment later I can hear the sound of his whimpers as he is dragged across the ground to me. "Sit up!" A fumble, and I raise my head to see his dirt covered, tear speckled face just a foot from mine. "Apologize for what you've done to her!"

"I'm sorry, Louise I'm so-" The blade is pulled again, again I can no longer breathe as it is held at his throat. "Like you mean it!"

His sobs, whimpers, and attempts become incoherent and the silver shines as traces of blood begin to flow over it. "Now!"

"He means it." I whimper myself, and before I can even blink the blade is sheathed again, the air is soft, and his face is driven into the dirt under her foot. "Guess I lied about the stones huh?" A moment later my head is pat, actually pat, as if I am a dog, and her voice, kind, understanding, a lie; Monsters cannot be kind after-all, sounds into my ear. "I will be in your room when you are ready to talk about this."

And soon, despite being surrounded, I am left alone, kneeling in the grass, gasping for air.

* * *

 **That is that.**

The duel. You see, the duel was actually really hard to write. I actually don't like curbstomps all that much, because they don't actually allow any sort of drama. You have to force it, make it flow. There was of course a ton of stuff going on here, like the Gandalfr runes, which both made it worse, and easier to write. So you know.

There are a _lot_ of battles planned in this story. This was the first. Not necessarily my favorite, but it will begin to sow seeds, and that is what it is meant to do. Also, if anyone is wondering, technically Tabitha won the poker game. The offscreen scene with Guiche happened when she was in the lead. That being said, the both of them will keep their money. Even if for one party that is significantly less meaningful than the other...

I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it.


	7. A1-CH-5-The Price of Strength

**Warning, this chapter contains some heavy themes. I may not have done them all justice**.

* * *

I kneeled there, gasping for at the very least a solid minute, it was probably longer, but time was not my biggest concern at the time. I replayed the events of the previous maybe twenty seconds of the duel in my head over and over at lightning speed. That is how long it took me to stop her from when she gripped her blade.

Twenty seconds I stood there like an idiot, twenty seconds I cowered while my familiar enacted wrongful justice in my name. My name, not even hers, thinking back it doesn't escape my notice she didn't even introduce herself. She wasn't trying to prove her power, she was acting as my familiar and my familiar alone, striking awe into all who opposed me and using my classmate to do it.

"How dare she." I clench my fist as I follow the road to the infirmary behind Guiche.

"Now you sound like her." Montmorency mocks me from Guiche's side, keeping him up, helping him walk.

I barely hold back from yelling at her, and the girl who has so far accompanied me on my own way to the infirmary without a word shakes her head silently.

I turn my head to look at blue. "Where did Kirche go?" I ask, seeing them without each-other is worrying. Rumor has it that it is the whole reason she learned to read while on the go. That way she could stay with Kirche and still read.

She doesn't answer, just looks distressed for a flicker of a moment. A hint of anxiety is clear as quickly as it is hidden. Hidden so well in fact, I am barely even sure it was there. Still it is answer enough, Kirche went after my familiar. It seems blue has more brains than the idiotic Germanian. Though, perhaps that is not fair, it is possible the redhead is totally aware she's asking for death chasing after the little monster. Though I never really figured her for having a deathwish, it is no skin off my back either way. She can have her, have her and her death.

"Why are you even here? I'm fine, There is no need of an escort, and I don't even know you..." I ask slash point out, and she wordlessly points towards my throat.

My throat? I reach down and touch it, and my fingers come away dripping with red. I'm, bleeding? How, when... "Did she hit me too?" I ask, and I get a shake, followed by small fingers gently miming claws before bringing them to her own throat. "When I scratched during the duel?" I ask, and she nods. I hadn't thought I had scratched nearly hard enough to rip into my skin. Looking at them covered in my fluid, I have to wonder if my nails are even sharp enough to do that. How hard had I dug, how vigorously? Why don't I feel it?

"I tried to kill myself." I speak, leaving no room for question. She lightly nods, going back to her book. Funny, based on the cover image it appears to be about a child of war. That's... an odd coincidence. Fiction or not, I wonder if it is more informative than the one in my room. "Why?" I ask, continuing on with our topic.

"KI." She says simply, like that explains anything. I Sigh, looking back at Guiche... "Killing intent." She clarifies, and I look back to her, she turns a page with a sort of grace I don't think I could manage with a hundred years of practice. If her future husband likes books even half as much as her, they could be complete opposites and they'd never know for all the talking they would do.

"You mean like resolve?" I ask. That is one of the terms my mother used to use when describing her presence. It was a manifestation of her resolve.

"No." The girl shakes her head in such a way that her eyes don't move an inch, more than likely a practiced motion so she doesn't lose her place.

"What's the difference?" I ask, and she remains silent.

We get to our destination before she speaks up, and even then she only says one line before she leaves me to the nurse, and while it doesn't stop my confusion, it does leave a bad taste in my mouth. "Be careful." Be careful of what? My Familiar? Why even bother telling me that, I know!

* * *

There is a deepest and darkest sections of the dorms, It isn't deep and dark for any normal reason of course. Not placement or staff neglect. If anything it actually has optimal placement, in the mid-day the sun shines upon it and creates an almost ethereal glow. It is a work of art so grand that the craftsman responsible bragged about it for years after its completion.

No, it is the deepest and darkest section of the dorms because it has an aura of doom. To those that live in the same dorm, in this moment, they avoid their rooms. They go out, they engage in ridiculous teenage activities.

Because the feeling encompassing this dorm in this moment is like that of a dungeon. Death, despair, depression, lurks around every corner. And at the center of it, is one room.

At least that is the impression Kirche gets as she foregoes her room and knocks on her rival's. A few seconds pass in silence, not that she expects an answer, she is only bothering with the pretense because the person she's seeking is armed and dangerous. Better to make sure she isn't sneaking up on them.

"What do you want now?" She hears from behind the door as somewhat light patters sound against the floor. "Stupid professor, stupid school, stupid pain in the ass motherfucking veteran fire mages think they're so hot." The door opens, and Kirche is left standing in contemplation. In part because that is some crude grumbling.

The small girl is drenched. To say in the past few minutes she had managed to cry an actual river on herself would be an exaggeration, of course, but it looks damn near close. "Oh, Kirche, it's you." The girl gives her a fake smile, and the redhead sees through it like there's a river of evidence right in front of her.

"What is that about fire mages?" She asks. Ignoring the fact that the girl finally appears to have dropped the nickname. Short lived as it was, it had begun to grow on her.. Still, glad it didn't catch on.

"Nothing important, just," she rubs her eyes with the back of her hands, as if trying to fake she is tired, "one of the teachers didn't appreciate what happened. Came to warn me not to do it again, and that there would be consequences."

"Consequences?" Kirche asks, wondering if she should grab the girl some water to refill what she'd lost. "You mean someone already came and talked to you about it? It's only been a few minutes."

"Yeah, well, turns out when you try to stab the son of a general a bunch of times the faculty here suddenly takes you seriously... Did you want to come in?" The familiar offers, stepping out of the way.

Kirche follows in, the door closing behind her perhaps a little too fast, and she hears a clicking sound as the door locks. "Why?" She asks as she turns around, some metal device in the small girl's hand. She's not fully aware of what it is, but from the hole at the end of a cylinder, it's obvious something is supposed to come out of it, and it's pointed directly at her face.

Definitely a weapon, she decides, as the fear of death screams in her soul, every brain cell crying out-for but a moment, before the world is back to normal. "You know if you intend to intimidate me you're going to have to put your finger on the trigger." She says, seeing it for what it is after a few seconds to recognize the basic design. "Everyone here is armed all the time, and people like Louise have a habit of shoving their weapons in my face."

"I'm making a point, not trying to kill you." The familiar responds, steel in her eyes. "I have no idea what the portal might have done to my gun, and if I suddenly have a hair trigger, well this would be a really bad time to find out. Just not worth the risk, it's why the safety is still on too... Presuming it still works."

"I don't, really understand why you're telling me this..." Kirche says.

"Just get on the bed." The familiar responds.

"Did you also want me to take-"

"No!" The familiar interrupts, "take this seriously or I'm taking the safety off."

"I don't know what that is but um, alright." She walks backwards, sitting on the bed, and the familiar takes the chair at Louise's desk. Funny, for someone trying to be intimidating she sure gives up power easily. Standing is an advantage, even Kirche knows that. Either she's arrogant, stupid, stupidly strong, or all three.

"Why did you lie to me?" The familiar asks her, and she can't help but ponder that for a bit. The familiar is actually quite patient, waiting her response out with barely a twitch even a full minute later.

"I don't think I have." The Germanian finally answers.

"You said you were my master's rival, you know, like in a book. Someone to grow stronger with, an ally that doesn't always seem like it. And I come to find out you're her bully." The familiar replies.

"We are rivals, our families have been rivals for generations... Still, while I wouldn't call us allies, I certainly wouldn't call myself her 'bully.' A little melodramatic of you don't you agree?" The redhead answers.

"Really? Because I think you're being nice to me to get at her, I think you're an enemy." The little fingers touch something on the side of the weapon, a small click sounds, and her finger nears -though does not touch- the trigger. "I think you're a threat, a bigger one than that idiotic blond, a menace that needs to be purged before you use me against her. I think no one would find the body. Not even my master."

"Then pull the trigger." The Germanian shrugs, staring down the barrel with a grin. "You know, if you can actually touch it."

"You are not helping your threat level here by staying calm and being snide. I actually don't want to hurt you, if you would just quiver maybe a tiny bit." The green haired girl responds.

Kirche laughs, "yeah, look, you are taking this far too seriously. Relax, I don't say this often but chill out for a second. The fire is burning just a little too hot in you."

"The what?" The familiar asks.

"The fires of passion. Normally I would say let roar but you should probably take a step back before you break the truce." Kirche informs.

Purple eyes widen. "Truce?"

"Yeah, even before this whole Guiche thing, I found her passed out in the library talking to herself about 'not being real,' and 'lies.' I figured you are really messing her up, So I offered to let things cool for a few days while she gets her bearings. Does that sound like the enemy to you?"

A moment later the clicking noise occurs as the familiar's finger brushes up and pushes something on the side of the pistol again, before reholstering it. "No…"

"Exactly. And even if I was her bully, even if I was definitively an enemy, would this really have been a rational reaction?" The redhead asks. "This is a school you know. As in not a battlefield."

"No, it really wouldn't be." The green haired girl sighs, rubbing her eyes again. "Sorry. I just… could we forget about this? Please? I know Louise is going to rightfully make the next few days of my life a living hell already, and that's if she doesn't send me back…"

"She can't." Kirche informs her, only to receive blinks. "The familiar summoning is one way."

"You mean to tell me your school is ripping people out of their homelands without a way to send them back? What if I didn't like it here?" The girl in the green dress asks with a hint of indignance.

"The familiar summoning has never taken a person before."

"Oh…" The small figure begins kicking her feet in her chair, looking away from Kirche as if she is currently fire. "So it normally just takes mythological creatures?"

"Among other things, yes."

"That makes sense." Purple eyes and green hair bobs up and down. "Besides, I did choose to go through the portal, it is not like it kidnapped me or something."

* * *

I sit beside Guiche's bedside. They said he should be fine but, wanted to keep him overnight for observation, apparently several of his ribs were broken, and of course like an idiot I offered to pay for the healer. Montmorency appeared to appreciate it before she left, Guiche... hasn't really commented.

While I was at it I also had my throat fixed, which was apparently a good idea. The healer said it is still going to scar, but it was reduced enough that it should only leave a rather thin line or two, like cuts. It can still be removed further in the future if I ever feel the desire to hunt down the reagents myself or find a powerful enough water mage to circumvent the need. Sadly Guiche's bones used up what the healer had available.

"Why are you still here?" The blond teen laying on the bed in front of me asks. "Even Monmon left already."

"Only because that first year came in here with food to wish you better." I laugh. "She was so livid. Cheating, getting into fights with monsters, you need to get yourself together."

"Fights with little girls, get it right." He laughs himself, his face scrunching up in pain. Whoops, didn't mean to do that.

A few minutes pass in silence, I play with my hands, watching my cleaned nails, imagining how they must have ripped into my flesh so little time ago. How? I run my finger over some of them, they seem so dull.

"You know I am sorry." He interrupts the silence.

My eyes dart up to him. "She's not here, you can stop that." I cringe.

"I stand by it." He answers. "The familiar you summon is supposed to tell everyone your potential as a mage correct? How much power you hold, how far you can make it last. I know you know the book better than I do."

"Yeah." I answer. "And I summoned a little girl without an ounce of magic, not an element in sight. What does that say about me?" I ask.

"That little girl without an ounce of magic just tore me to pieces. Maybe it is my wounded pride talking, but I think she might be able to take on a few of the teachers." He says back.

I scoff.

"I think you are simply not using your power right, not that you cannot cast." He voices his thoughts.

I clench my fists again, I already tried different angles, I already learned all of them. Hours upon hours spent researching, memorizing, and he thinks I am simply missing something? "Yeah, I hope so too." I answer back.

"I also think you should talk to your familiar about what sort of mage she is, and maybe why she is hiding it. It might give you insight."

My eyes narrow. "She isn't a mage."

"I know metal." He answers. "Not even talking about the fact that she kicked a bronze golem into the air and crushed it with her foot, ignoring the fact that she is maybe eighty pounds and she broke my ribs with that same foot, ignoring that when she drew her sword it felt like I was going to die for absolutely no reason what-so-ever. Her sword is made of silver. You know why silver swords are a bad idea?" He seems to think I should know this.

"I do not." I answer back, biting back a retort as to the fact that I know basically everything else and it isn't fair to judge me on his specialty.

"Keeping them sharp without the aid of magic is impossible." He says, looking back up at the ceiling. "At the very least, her sword and shoes are magic."

Silence encroaches, and several minutes pass. In that time I contemplate what he said, and can come up with no defense. One way or another my familiar is lying to me. I just, wish I knew why.

Finally, he speaks. "I will try to talk to some of the other students about cutting back on you. You just go back to your room. Leave me alone." He tilts his head back, appearing to try to sleep as he closes his eyes. I stare, mouth agape, unsure of what to do, unsure of what to say. Unsure of why I'm second guessing it. "You, are not gone yet." He informs. "Walk away, towards the door, leave."

I do.

* * *

I pass by Kirche slipping into her room on my way to my own. That is good, I was honestly afraid something might happen with my familiar apparently lashing out at my 'enemies,' and the prime offender marching right for her. She seems out of breath for some reason, but ultimately unharmed.

"Zero-ah, Louise." I hear from behind me. Louise? Is she keeping up with the truce? I sort of thought that was a joke. I turn around to see her standing outside her door. "Do be easy on her, she has had a rather rough afternoon."

A rough afternoon? Is she insane? "She has? Are you sure that isn't backwards? Here I was under the impression she caused all this."

"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." She shoots back, and I frown, furrowing my brow in confusion. What does that even mean? "It's just something she said that made a lot of sense. Go talk to her, and be nice." She enters her room, and I am somewhat grateful she chose not to comment on the plate in my hand.

As I get to my own door though, I hesitate. What if I overreact? What if I set her off? She just left me there, bleeding from my throat. She didn't even say anything about it! What even is an appropriate reaction? Why am I even here? I should just find somewhere else to sleep. Maybe the forest? It seemed relatively peaceful last night after-all, I bet that minicamp she made is still there.

Before I can second guess myself any further, I feel my hand open the door against my inherent will, pride not allowing me to be driven from my own room by my familiar. I look into the room.

She is curled up in a ball on the bed of hay. I completely forgot to have it removed, and it appears she deigned to use it. There are also two wine glasses and a bottle of wine on my table. Nice Kirche, drink with the little raging maniac until she passes out in a bed of hay.

I stare down at the plate of meat I nabbed for her at dinner when I didn't see her there. I know she missed lunch, and she didn't eat anything at breakfast so, it seemed a bit cruel to let a child starve. No matter what she does, she is six years younger than me, well… close enough. I place it down on the table gently, either she will wake up and eat it, or a maid will take it. I've done my part.

I then proceed to get undressed, and quickly slip into my nightgown. The sun really just went down, even if I did spend an unnecessarily long time putting this off, it was only noon when the duel, if one could even call it that, occurred. The sound of liquid hitting liquid hits my ears and I turn back towards the table, my familiar sitting at it pouring a glass. When did she move? How did she move that fast? There is a bit of her bed in her long hair.

She then moves onto the second glass, filling it, where the first is filled barely half way. Does she think I want to drink with her? Why would she fill the glass anyway?

"Sit, we have much to talk about. I had a maid get these for us." She says.

"So you are not currently drunk?" I hear myself ask, and she shakes her head.

"Nope."

I hesitantly approach the table, taking a chair, fiddling with my fingers again. So sharp yet so dull.

"This is really strong," I note aloud as I check the bottle, "are you sure this is safe for you to drink?" I ask. "You are sort of, small."

"Nope." She answers, before downing the entirety of the half filled glass in one go, a large gulp sucking the fluid down. Her eyes glaze immediately, as if the alcohol hit her system before it even hit her stomach. I wonder if she's one of those types that can get drunk off the smell alone… I hope not, or else this is going to get really awkward. I reach for the filled glass, if anything to get it away from her.

"I am not comfortable with you getting drunk." I declare.

"No worries, the rest of the bottle is yours." She says back. "That was more than enough for my purposes."

I idly grimace at the idea of this whole bottle being for me. "I am actually not the biggest drinker." I inform.

"What does it matter." She answers. "Set it on fire, use it as fuel to burn the book on your desk, you know it is filled with crap."

"I am aware." I glare at the offending book. "You read it?" She nods, and if it was any other little girl, I would be confused, possibly even disbelieving. It is rather high level after all and she hasn't had all that much time, but as is, I simply let it go. One more notch on the crazy carriage for one green haired monster.

"Well, I read some of it." Oh, nevermind. Still, that she got through any of it is an achievement in itself.

"You know you cost me a lot of money." I inform her. "Healing broken bones is not cheap."

She frowns, confused at my line of words for a moment, before it clicks with her. She stands up, and then walks to her bag, pulling out three rather large bags, and then sits back down, sliding them across the table. They jingle. "Everything I won from the game earlier that I got to keep, you take it."

I go through the bag and, there is a lot in here, wait, "got to keep?" I ask.

"Yeah, I had to give half of it to Kirche for lending me the money to start the game up." She sheepishly responds, "it's fine, I don't really need it."

Well, at least that cost is covered. "You gamble?" I ask. The list of problems just goes on. "Without the need for money?"

"I figured you might end up needing it, and I haven't gotten to play for money in a long time. It was therapeutic." She answers.

We sit in silence for a few minutes, I sip at my glass, barely scratching it. I have no intentions of being less than optimal around her. Especially when she is indulging in any sense.

"How is your throat?" She asks, gazing at it, despite the small amount she downed I can easily tell her vision still isn't clear.

I hold in my anger at the thought. "Fine, no thanks to you." I grumble. "I could have died."

She has the nerve to laugh at me. It's soft, sweet, not the sort of laugh you would normally expect. In any other situation I would love to hear it, right now, not so much. "I looked to make sure you hadn't hit an artery or anything, and since you hadn't, I figured you could probably use being away from me more than help to the nurse. It is not like your legs stopped working."

I don't bother telling her they didn't for a whole minute, I worry she'll laugh at that too. "It is going to leave a scar." I inform her. Hoping to get some sort of reaction out of her besides 'laughter.' By the holy lands, my summon doesn't even care she caused me pain.

"Healing magic can mend bone but not scar tissue?" She asks.

"It can, but the needed reagents were used up." How they were used up need not be said.

A calculating look, if that even makes sense, passes her glazed eyes. "I will look into it tonight." She decrees.

Wait, tonight? As in, before the wine has cleared her system? I know it was only a little bit but even without the alcohol she looks exhausted.

"I figure it will give you a night away from me, besides it is my fault. I certainly wouldn't want your skin marred because of my actions, that is… important, for a noble. Correct?" She asks.

"Yes, it is, very much so." I agree.

"It will also give me some time to clear my head... I mean look at me, a single day and I'm already trying to off teenagers for being teenagers. If Victor could see me now... Well I'd probably die of embarrassment before he even drew his sword, honestly..."

"Victor?" I ask. If she is giving info away, I am definitely taking it.

"Yeah, he was my uncle, my uh, biological uncle. He taught me how to use a sword and well, lots of other things."

"Like how to drink responsibly?" I joke, and she actually nods.

"I uh, have a much lower tolerance than is normal for someone with my size, even when considering my age. He taught me to down a small amount and even then, only when I have nothing important to do."

"And yet you want to hunt down reagents? Some of those probably need to be ripped from monsters you know." I inform with a glare.

"Well I only had half a glass you see." She giggles. "But yeah, he also taught me not to harm the innocent. I figure if I'm breaking one rule..."

"The innocent? Guiche is not innocent." Sure by no means did he deserve, well, that, but acting like he never did anything is insane.

"Maybe not, but you are, and it was my anger that messed up your throat. Misplaced anger, it's not like he was assaulting you or something. I just blew up, completely overreacted... Right?" She sheds a few tears, quite randomly I might add, and if anything sounds hopeful.

"You're just a kid." I say back. Mostly to remind myself. "And no, he has never laid a hand upon me."

She nods, and looks towards the plate I set down. "I thought you might be hungry." I answer her hidden question, and she smiles, grabbing the plate and bring it close.

"Thank-you master."

As she eats I think on what Guiche said. "So when were you going to tell me you're a mage."

The sudden nervousness that crosses her features is almost as delicious as I'm sure the food is. She lurches forward in her seat, covering her mouth, and slowly chewing. Biding her time before answering I am sure. "I had no intentions of covering something like that up, I really do not have access to any of the five elements." That is, painfully specific.

"Is there a sixth element?" I ask. Besides the wrath of food of course. Perhaps a seventh? I am of course joking, there is no such thing as a sixth element, but the humor in the words makes me smile.

"No… Could we talk about something else?" She asks, suddenly feeling the need to play with her hair.

I have no mercy for monsters. Especially lying monsters. "Why are you lying to me Adeline?" I ask, and she winces. Based on her expression, the slightly quicker breathing, the way her jaw is twitching. I would almost imagine her tongue burns.

And then she takes another bite. Savoring the meat. Good, she can have her time. I will still be here when she finishes.

And I am. "I'm not lying, I just, I'm a little caught off guard is all. Why would you even think I have magic?" She asks.

I see no harm in informing her of what has trapped her. "Your sword. It's silver, yet even after all the damage you have certainly put it through, it is sharp." I silently thank Guiche for that one. "Not only that, but it positively leaked KI, killing intent I mean." I thank Tabitha for that.

"It was a gift from my uncle." She answers immediately. "It was supposed to keep weaker opponents from fighting back and wasting my stamina. It also has several enhancements to keep it from snapping, and you know, sharp."

"So I am one of those weaker opponents?" I ask, and she winces.

"No…" She shakes her head.

"Then what am I?" I ask.

"You.." She seems uncertain. "You, are my master." Thank-you for remembering. And here I thought you had forgotten.

"Why yes, of course, but I am still in the same class as them, quite literally in this case, falling to the ground and ripping at my own throat just from an enchantment." She winces again as if struck just from remembering.

"I will look into healing the scar." She reassures me.

"As for your class… In your defense, the enchantment feeds on my anger, and I was certainly angry. Perhaps more angry than I have been in a long time." She answers.

"Why?" I ask.

"It was sort of a conglomeration of things. First of all, I sort of thought it was all just fun between peers. I never went to a school like this, so, I didn't actually recognize the signs until he was acting like you were worthless and everyone was laughing. I uh, lost my temper." She appears to fold in on herself, getting smaller as her posture shifts. "Second, well, how can they not see how strong you are?" She asks.

I gape, just a little, before fixing myself. "I assure you I am weak enough to get taken out by your enchantment." I snipe back.

"So you need a little training, your power is still very real. You can basically lob grenades at will, I wish I could do that." She lets out a little snort, before digging into her meal again.

"Grenades?" I ask, and her eyes widen immensely. It appears she hadn't meant to say that.

"Come again?" She asks, apparently hoping I will forget.

I repeat, I have no mercy for monsters. Especially lying monsters. "Grenades, you said I can lob grenades at will."

"Oh, grenades!" She tries to sound like it's just occurring to her. Bull. "Secret tech I'm actually not supposed to talk about. Basically you throw them, and things explode."

I nod, that makes sense. I suppose to a commoner-noble-commoner, I really just don't know, that would be astounding. "And your shoes?" I ask.

"My, shoes?" She furrows her brow.

"Yes." I continue. "You also destroyed a metal object with your foot."

"Oh, no, hahahaa!" She laughs, covering her mouth with her hand. "I've been meaning to ask about that, but no, no magical shoes for me." She claps her feet together in show. "Is it normal for a familiar to get stronger?"

I hadn't considered that. "Not directly, no, but it is not unheard of for a familiar to gain special abilities from their bond. In extremely rare cases, the opposite has happened. Though by extremely rare I mean only with familiars that contain extremely potent magical abilities."

"Huh." She sounds. "So super kicks is my special ability. I also seem a little faster, and that punch barely hurt."

"So it seems." Never-mind, I thought I had cornered her. It seems I jumped conclusions.

She finishes her last bite, smiling graciously at me before giving a thankful little bow. "I am off to go look into getting you something for your throat. Is there anything else you need of me?"

"That will be all for now, Adeline. Do be safe." I request of her, before she grabs her bag and leaves. It isn't for a few minutes that I remember how tired she looked. I do hope she doesn't pass out somewhere embarrassing.


	8. A2-CH-1-More Drink Needed

**AN** I now have an outline for the next two arcs, and will be starting a system where I write a little every night.

Arc 2 starts pretty much directly after Arc 1 ended. Sorry about the wait. That's really all there is to be said about it.

* * *

My familiar just stumbled into my life, and yet already it feels as if she's made an impact I will never forget. It is not a happy impact, nor is it a sad impact, but it is powerful nonetheless; an omnipresent force changing my perceptions by the moment. I can feel it deep inside, shifting me in ways I am not sure I am comfortable with. How much have I changed, how much will I change? Should I fear or embrace it? I'm not really sure, and that's not even considering the exterior concern, Adeline. Servant or not, a young girl is now bound to me. If I change to accept her ways, I am telling her her ways are okay. But if I do not, if I resist change and stay the same, I am telling her she needs to change for me instead. Which is correct?

It is such concepts and musings that permeate my thoughts as I lay down to rest without my familiar. Already it feels wrong without her here. It is not fondness, one needs to trust another for fondness and she has shown time and time again I cannot trust her. It is more, familiarity. Somehow she has already managed to make me feel comfortable with her presence in a way. Surpassing logic and allowing herself to become familiar without an extended period. Essential without being useful.

Idly I ponder as I slowly drift asleep. Why is it that I am willing to allow myself to become familiar with someone that would lie to me so constantly on subjects so important? She was telling the truth about becoming stronger due to the familiar contract, of that I know. She is easy to read after-all. But she was also lying about much deeper issues. She was already strong before she came to me, she was already used to wielding magic artifacts and acting with superhuman attributes. She denies being a mage but I do not believe she understands what she is saying.

For if she is not lying about that and she is not a mage, meaning there is no magic abundant within her, yet she surpasses human capability as if magical. Then there is truly only one rational explanation.

She is not bound by humanity, and never was. For now, I will choose to believe I summoned a self conscious mage. It is easier that way.

* * *

 **Arc 2: The Quest for Reagent, A Familiar's Oath!**

She'd barely made it out of there in time, her face was already flushing from the alcohol in her system and her vision already doubling when she'd stepped through the door. That had been a really hard conversation for Adeline. Or as she'd later put it, interrogation. Why couldn't Louis just shut up and accept she didn't wanna talk about it? She'd been worried there, an evil look in the girl's eyes. That Louise might just straight up order answers... She didn't really know how she'd react. She knew she'd feel betrayed, she already felt betrayed and her master hadn't even done it. Such an order would have surely shattered any sense of civility between them. Far from a master and her servant. It would be a master and her slave.

She'd stumbled around and bumped into students in a drunken haze, many had laughed at the Valliere summon completely smashed and grumbling, many had ran away as if they'd seen the devil in her eyes.

One person stopped to ask her if she was okay.

That's how she ended up here, listening to a strangely Asian looking maid giving her a lecture about the dangers of alcohol for a young girl. She's not really sure about everything the maid is saying, in fact she can't even hear half of it over the pounding in her head and the desperate screaming in her body to get some fluids. Luckily the maid had been so kind as to shove a giant pitcher into her hands. But she's at least seventy percent sure that the maid is taking advantage of the situation to cross about thirty seven different lines of conduct when talking to a noble.

"Sorry." Adeline grumbles. "I didn't really want to be sober for what I thought was coming, I must have overdone it, it won't happen again." She's said that at least eight times now, well, probably, it may be the first time she isn't sure.

Either way it's like the maid doesn't hear her, continuing to ramble on while the small green haired girl sucks down water like it's sweet syrup. As annoying as it is, she appreciates the sentiment. It has been over a year since someone has cared enough to lecture her about overindulging...

It's been over a year since anyone has cared enough to lecture anyone about overindulging. This place is a dream come true.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Adeline's eyes flicker up to the Maid's extended finger. It appears she finally finished breaking every code imaginable. The thought is a bit saddening, she was enjoying it.

"Thank-you very much Ma'am, I've learned my lesson." She gives a polite statement. Based on the gasp and shaking from the woman, it doesn't seem like that's the norm. She idly decides to look into that later.

Though for now, she decides it is no matter as she gets to her feet. "These are your quarters, correct?" She asks the maid, who stammers out a 'yes.' "Then if you care so much, you won't mind me taking a nap."

The sputtering is honestly kind of annoying, but in an endearing sort of way. Just like the maid's bed. It's uncomfortable, in an endearing way... She decides to see about getting money and buying this maid a better bed. She's likely to be using her as a way to avoid her master in the future if it is this easy to do, leaving it as Louise would say, unacceptable, is well, unacceptable.

"It is nearing time to sleep, Miss..." The maid begins.

Adeline answers in grumble. "Akuma. Akuma Adeline."

"Miss Akuma, or miss Adeline?"

"Adeline is my given name, Akuma is... my family name."

The maid takes a few moments to collect herself before continuing. "It is nearing time to sleep, Miss Akuma. Where am I to sleep if you take my bed?" She's stiff, Adeline notes. _She thinks she's gonna get punished for speaking up to me when I didn't say a word about that entire lecture... that's adorable. Idiotic, but adorable_.

She takes the moment to pat the bed beside her. "I don't take much space." She yawns. "Night, night."

"Miss Akuma that's not-"

And that's the last she gets out before Adeline's eyes close and she's lost to the world.

* * *

"And that's how I woe'd a maid and ended up in her bed for the night." Adeline says as her palm impacts the blond boy's. She's really sure why he's was still in the hospital, he seems fine to her. In fact, he doesn't even seem traumatized, all things considered he looks great. A bit overly pretty in her opinion, perhaps too much make-up for one still in the hospital, the flowers everywhere are a bit weird too. But all around she doesn't see why everyone is making such a big deal.

"That was a story about how you got drunk and stole a maid's bed." Guiche corrects. "The fact that she didn't end up in it sort of eliminates any gossip that could be made from taking it out of context. I think you're gonna have to do a little better than that to make this up to me."

"Pfft." Adeline waves her hand, "make it up to you? You're still on about that? I put you in the hospital _once_ , you act like I gouged out your eyes or something."

"Quite." His lips smooth as he sighs. "Well I have you know I am still in the hospital, and I am not really feeling all that forgiving at the moment."

She sighs, "you are such a drama queen... look, would you feel better if I got you out of the hospital? You are fine right, they are just keeping you here because they are jerks?"

"And because they worry I'll have a flashback when the shock hits and tear out my own throat."

"Details." She waves, "details. Let's go. You are gonna miss school anyway for the next week or so, I am starting an adventuring party and I want you to help."

"Why." He waves his hand in a circle as if he has a wand, "pray tell, would anyone want to help you?"

"Because I probably hit your pride right?" She begins. "Not, yours directly. I doubt you are that easily faltered, why it was simply a duel between unequal, there is nothing to get flustered about when the obvious victor does in fact take the win, right?"

His eyes twitch, but he gives a restrained nod.

She continues. "Your family on the other hand is not gonna see it that way. I did some research, and your father is a general or something right? Well I promise you when we're on the road if we do anything that would bring glory, I'll let you take all the credit. In fact, I'll write a first hand account stating how scared I was, and how you came to my rescue. That way when you tell your father you went easy on me, you'll have proof."

"You wound me deeply." Guiche palms his forehead. "I am not sure what hurts more. That I have been reduced to this at all, or that I am going to be escorting an eight year old stronger than me."

"I'm ten."

* * *

Montmorency Margarita La Fère de Montmorency has a nice room. It's not an overly luxurious room, there's no view of an entire courtyard filled with flowers that bloom specifically for her or anything. In all honesty it fails to even give a good view of the twin moons. The Montmorency are not a family that would require anything eccentric and amazing like that, and any requests they made for such would be denied.

Still, her room is nice, it has plenty of space for her alchemy set, a desk of which she spends much of her time, a wardrobe, a large comfortable bed, and even a bit of room to walk around. There is more than enough for three people to live in her room comfortably, so anyone calling it poor would either be using satire or obscenely spoiled.

Unfortunately for Montmorency Margarita La Fère de Montmorency. She's actually not sure which one it is. "You seriously live here?" The green haired girl scoffs, looking around as if it's gonna bite her. "How? Doesn't it get overly cramped?"

"I…" Montmorency takes a moment to breathe. Truly, come up with a response. "How did you get in my room…. When did you get in my room? Why would this be cramped? Who told you where I live?"

"All important questions." The devil-woman in a child's body responds, "ones with obvious answers, but important nonetheless…"

"You gonna.. Maybe, answer any of them?" Montmorency asks, struggling to hold in an eye twitch she so desperately desires to unleash.

"Mmmnnn…" The green haired bitch taps her chin. "Thinking about it, truly, but then… Should I answer to one as lowly as you?"

"You know what?" Montmorency takes an orange flask from her table. A simple creation, one made from spite. "While you are here, be useful, drink this." There is almost no hesitation, not even half a second to think before the child has the entire flask down. Montmorency cannot help but stare, mouth ajar in awe. To put it simply, there are degrees of insanity Montmorency is now realizing exist. "That, was… did you…"

"So, I was wondering." The short girl stretches a bit, hands above her head as she smirks. "Don'tcha just hate this atmosphere between us? I'm on a quest to adventure across the country in search of reagents. A simple mission for sure, and along the way I plan to stop and have lots of fun. What do'ya say?" She extends her hand out for Montmorency. "Wanna join? It'll give you an excuse to skip classes, your alchemy skills will be useful in a practical way which'll surely feel good, and you'll even make a friend."

"...I am not sure how to put this." The shocked blonde gives a moment to just bask in awe. "I would very much like it if you would go." She's honestly unsure of how to reject the small female any harsher, it's clear on her face as if written in stone.. All she knows is she wants the green one out of her sight. Why, that's a complicated array of questions. Ones not so easily captured in a simple expression, no, all the expression does is tell the world there are variables to be considered, and the end goal.

"Really?" Purple eyes narrow as the small figure pouts. "Come on, it'll be fun. We can go fishing, swimming, there's gonna be a beach trip I'm promising you now."

"I do not want to visit a beach." Montmorency tries. "Beaches have no shame, sand flows without restraint."

A sigh escapes the little one, a sad sigh, one of loss. "What do I have to offer you? It's really important to me, don't you want to be a part of something?"

"A part of a trip away from school with the girl responsible for putting my Guiche in the hospital. Of course, why would I ever refuse?"

Adeline lights right up.

"I am joking, please, I do not want to be rude but you did not have permission to enter my chambers to begin with. I would like you to go."

"You are making a mistake." Adeline says. "You can trust me on this, you will regret missing this trip, everything that could have been experienced. All the journeys lost, the lessons forsaken. Friendship?"

"I would really like you to leave now."

"Friendship?"

"Please leave."

* * *

"You are actually really hard to find." Adeline says as she slams a book in front of the blue haired girl. A passing member of the servant faculty dares a glare at the girl for disturbing them with noise, but she pays them no mind. "Okay so not like really challenging, but for some reason I honestly thought this would be the last place I'd find you."

The bluenette looks up from her book to point at the other books. The bookshelves, the countless bookshelves. The books on the table. Before going back to her own.

"Oh, not above sarcasm are you?" The small girl smirks at the other small girl. "Fine, I'll, wait, one moment. The girl brushes her green hair out of the way as she pulls a large dark cylinder to her mouth, "bluauauauh!"

The wet sounds are almost enough for Tabitha to actually care, but not quite. The rest of the staff are not quite so composed in their glaring. Only in the library can you find servant staff willing to give nobles attitude.

"Yeah, yeah." Adeline coughs as she puts away the cylinder, "sorry. Montmorency decided to give me laxatives when I tried to be nice earlier." That gains a raised eyebrow from the bluenette. "There's nothing to leave out that side so I'm sorta just puking, you know?" The eyebrow raises even further. "Yes, I am well aware that's not how laxatives are supposed to work, shut up."

Tabitha plops her book on the table, giving Adeline a flat stare.

"Ugh, your judgement is so loud." Adeline groans. "Look, I knew it was dumb but I wanted to make a point. How was I supposed to know she thought messing with my digestive system was the way to go? Normal people just use poison-one moment." The cylinder is back just in time.

Tabitha's book rises as she begins reading again. Going back to ignoring the girl.

"Anyyyywaaaay." Adeline coughs. "I am going on an adventure, and due to certain, shall we say aspects of that adventure. I'll be bringing along the weak, defenseless, bound to get themselves hurt-you know the type. And so, I figured, I'm really bad at babysitting weaklings you know? I sorta need someone who's actually competent on the team if only so that when things inevitably go bad I'm not the only one who knows what they're doing…." She trails. "You're not even listening are you?"

Tabitha turns a page.

"Fine, ugh, fuck you then. When they die it's your fault." Adeline stands. "I just thought you actually gave a damn. You know, since you stick around Kirche." She scratches at her cheek, "she's pretty weak I think, and uh, she means a lot to you right? So you have to know how to protect the weak."

The only real response is a shake of Tabitha's head.

"Guuh…" Adeline sighs, "you're a real bitch, you know that? Catch you later."

Just as Adeline turns, Tabitha actually graces her with a response. "Not weak."

Adeline's eyes tilt back. "What? I know you're not weak. I can see the way you shift. You're just like me, right?"

The blue haired girl shakes her head. "Kirche, not weak. Line."

"Line?" Adeline's brow quirks. "That's what a line feels like? No way, that's…"

"I am a triangle."

The silence ensuing is a painful one. Especially for Adeline who's head bashes against the table over and over again. No one is quite sure why they even try to shush her at this point, she's very clearly not library trained.

"You'll hurt yourself." The quiet triangle mage points, as if very used to hyperactive Germanians doing dumb things.

Adeline's head rises, groaning. "But if you're a triangle, that means… Never-mind. You're not tagging along to help protect the not triangles?"

A shake blue hair is really all Adeline needs to leave in a huff.

* * *

"Heya, it's my favorite person." Adeline says as she enters the room, Kirche doesn't bother fixing her state of being definitively 'not dressed' as she lounges on her bed. She contemplates it, for sure, but it's just too much effort. Instead, she lazily grabs the edge of her blanket and plops it over herself. "You know your room is much better that Montmorency's."

"Really?" The Germanian asks. "Is that why you felt the need to break in… I didn't even hear the lockpick… you broke into Montmorency's?"

"Yeah." Adeline nods, "she gave me laxatives, just getting over the issue, actually, heh…" She trails.

"So what makes my room so much better?" Kirche asks, clearly not very committed.

"Well see when I break into Mont-you know what I hate that name, it's too long. Eh… when I break into Frog girl's room-"

The redhead can't help but laugh at that.

"-all I get is tude. But here, I totally get to eye a sexy lady, so, you know…" her sandals scrape across the floor a bit as she manages to look sheepish. There's even a little blush. In response, Kirche scrounges up just enough decency to pull the blanket a bit more over herself. Because of Adeline's age, mostly. And not at all because hearing that made her self conscious. That's her story and she's sticking to it.

"Annnyyywaaaay." Adeline continues, "I wanna go on an adventure, and I figured you'd wanna come. You know how it is, adventure is always more fun with a group…"

"No." Kirche denies, not even bothering to shake her head. "That sounds like it would be fun, truly, but I have classes and despite what your master would believe, no one gets to slack off just because they are talented. This school is actually pretty hard."

"Gaaah." Adeline whines, "are you seriously the third teenager that's gonna point blank refuse to skip school? Really? Here I thought you were cool."

"That's… No." The redhead blows some of her hair out of her face. "I am not cool, I am very hot, and this heat would rather not fail and get sent back home. Besides, that's likely several days without anyone to flirt with or… otherwise. I'm an active woman, that would suck."

"There will be plenty of men on the road for you to suck Kirche." Adeline laughs, rolling her eyes. "Come oooooon. It's a quest for reagents, we could stop on the way and study some plants or something while we're at it, call it a herbology trip to better understand nature or something. Extra credit."

"No, don't… You can't just come out and say it like that." Kirche reprimands.

"Extra credit?"

"No, suck." She scolds. "You have to tie an innuendo to it, otherwise it just comes out insulting. No more hitting on people until you have it right. Otherwise someone'll take you seriously."

"What if I want someone to take me seriously?" Adeline asks.

"Then you want me to burn someone to death. Give it a couple more years, or at least by Germanian standards. Not actually sure how it works here in Tristian…"

"Uugghh, there's always someone trying to stifle my flames of passion." Adeline sighs wistfully.

"Nope," Kirche points, "you don't get to use that."

"Damn-it!" Her sandals scrape against the floor again, "are you at least coming?"

"Not while you're here-"

"Good one, good one." Adeline nods to herself, apparently writing that one down mentally. "But I mean on the trip."

"Will you be there too? Cuz if sooo-"

A flat stare is all the reply Kirche receives. "The herbology extra credit trip to impress my professors with my dedication?" Kirche asks. "Yeah, of course."

* * *

Colbert's lab is a nice place, at least when there's not soot everywhere. There's not, some kind of mage probably cleaned it with awesome cleaning winds. "Sooo… whatcha buildin?"

He doesn't even bristle, nor flinch, hands deep in some kind of machinery. "I'm working on a device that'll automatically move. Well, more specifically I'm working on a device that'll move with an alternative power-source. Magic is great but magic requires a mage to man it, I feel like the world could benefit from less reliance."

"So, what were you thinking?" She asks again. "Fire?"

"Again, not magic." He rebuts. "Fire is a great idea in that the heat does provide enough power to do things that are not explicitly related to its magical purpose, but if the device runs off fire everyone will still assume it requires a fire mage. Even if you could get away with using wood or something."

"Ahh… Gasoline?"

"I don't know what that is." Colbert says. "Do you know the internal structure enough to replicate it for me?"

"No… sorry." Adeline sheepishly kicks the floor just a little. "Nevermind, um, if it helps what you're trying to do is totally possible, so uh… Keep at it?"

"Thanks." He says, "I already knew it was possible but validation from a child is surely just what I needed to sooth my wavering motivation."

"Pffft, come on." Adeline shakes her head back and forth with a smile. "Whatever, I'm not here to stroke your ego, I mean, unless you want me-"

"Nope." he says.

"I didn't even finish the-"

"A student has used that line on me like seven times this past year. The first couple times I couldn't help but get a bit flustered, but at this point I just automatically respond that science is my love and I'm already seven inches deep…"

One, two, three, four- "I am under the impression I just said that in front of a child. I get you don't really count but I am remarkably uncomfortable nonetheless. "

"Ye-auhahahhaa!Pfffftt!." Adeline responds, well, more like releases air.

A few minutes pass, just like that. Adeline struggling for air, Colbert working on some tubing.

Before he finally gets fed up. "Why are you here, Adeline?"

"This pink haired girl decided-"

"Not here as in, in this school. I mean here, as in in my lab. You didn't just wander in here, the door was locked. You have a reason."

"Ugh." She pushes herself off the floor, brushing herself down despite the fact that the floor is basically spotless. "These." She reaches down, "my pistol." She places the device on the table. "It uses a type of ammunition this place is not really aware of. This means when I run out I won't have more, but I sorta need more. It's integral to my ability to fight."

"Not to be cruel." Colbert replies. "But when did I give you the impression I want you fighting? I remember specifically lecturing you about this very topic just last night."

"Yeah, yeah." She waves her hand away from her. "Look, if I don't have bullets then I can't protect Louise from a distance, I have to be right next to her, which means I can't protect more than one person at once. Is that really what you want?"

"In your attempts to convince you failed to realize I have a brain." Colbert replies, fondling the tubing. "If you can attack from a distance, then that means you can attack from a distance."

"Yeah… That's uh, yeah." Adeline nods.

"Which means you can kill more than one person at once, and distance doesn't matter. I really want to help you but there's this thing called my morals, it's pretty heavily ingrained. It clearly says, 'do not give a killer an enhanced ability to kill your students from a range.'"

"Ughhhhh." She begins grumbling.

"See, right there, I am under the impression you will use this to shoot my students in the face, and you don't even have a proper argument."

"I…" She huffs. "I won't?"

"You're not even convincing yourself." He replies.

"Louise likes it here." Adeline begins, "I don't wanna do anything to compromise that, yesterday I overreacted but it won't happen again. And even then, no one really got hurt."

"Your master used enough Ecu in paying his healer bill she could have bought a small house instead."

"Okay, seriously hurt. He's fine, I was talking to him earlier, he's not even mad." Adeline shrugs. "He still has all his limbs, I would say I did a damn good job keeping myself from overreacting physically even if I lost my temper a bit."

There's a silence, just a moment, before she continues. "I can't promise you I won't ever use it against one of your students because you can't promise me none of your students will ever try to hurt Louise or me."

And then a few more seconds pass as Colbert ties a string to the tube and a piece of metal. "I get your dilemma, but it doesn't really make me want to make you tools you will use to kill."

"Ugh… How about this." She detaches a container of some sort, picking three small shining metal cylinders out of it. "I leave these with you, you do your studying thing, make some more, and then keep them somewhere you know I won't look for them. That way if an emergency comes up the bullets are already made, but if one doesn't, I still don't get them. And, you get to explore new tech. Sound fair?"

"I could get behind that, yes." He agrees.

"Just uh…" She pokes the tip of one a few times. "Be careful with them, it's live ammunition, if you superheat it or hit it too hard or something it might go off in your face. It's not like the musketballs and stuff everyone uses, these can totally go flying from a standing position without a gun."

"Enlightening." Colbert says, "thank-you for your consideration… now leave."

"On it, on it."

* * *

"Miss Akuma, just who I wanted to see." A wizened old mage sitting behind a desk smiles at her as she breaks into his office.

A green haired woman barges in right after her, "sorry sir she wouldn't listen to me."

It's truly a novel experience, the old wizard muses. Watching two green haired lasses argue, the older trying to pull the smaller out of his office, the smaller putting up just enough of a fight that the older doesn't notice the smaller is really just humoring her in an attempt to not raise suspicion.

Suspicion of what, one might ask? Her re-positioning his secretary's legs in such a way that his mouse can get a great view. Truly, when the young are helpful it is a glorious day. "Thank-you Miss Longueville." He speaks with a happy blush. It is truly great to be blessed. "But I believe that will be enough. I was about to call Miss Valliere's familiar into my office in a few minutes anyway, she is free to stay."

"Oh.." The woman lets go of Adeline, struggling to keep her composure in the face of embarrassment. "I… will be off then, my sincerest apologies for the interruption." The woman is so embarrassed in fact, she doesn't notice his mouse returning back to him, nor Miss Akuma's gesture with both her thumbs towards it. He's not quite sure what the gesture means, but she is smiling in what appears to be happiness, so he takes it to mean approval.

The moment his secretary closes the door, Adeline sits in a seat right in front of his desk, kicking her legs a little bit and patiently waiting for him to finish up the papers he's pretending to work on. Honestly, she's very polite. "Miss Akuma, you did have a reason for coming here, correct?"

"Oh." She is startled into a ramrod straight sitting position at his question. "I really just needed to ask permission for something but uh, first, can you see through your mouse's eyes or did I just help the most perverted mouse in history?"

"Ahahahaha!" He laughs, grinning like a loon. "Permission? For what."

"I need to take some students and a maid on a trip." She says. "It'll be educational. I have noticed the nobles here seem to be lacking in umm, I don't wanna say culture. But they could benefit from a hands on view of the world and how it works. There would also be herbology along the way."

"Is that all?" He asks.

"Huh?"

"Miss Akuma, this is a school for nobles. Everyone enrolled here is, in theory, an adult."

"Is that why you don't stop Kirche and Guiche's blatant habits?" She asks.

"In theory…"

She looks around, anywhere but the headmaster's perverted grin. Truly, tis a good day. "So I can take them?"

"They will be required to write a report about what they learned once they return, to make sure they were not simply off on some fanciful adventure. But yes, you are given permission to take all but the maid you spoke of."

"But uh…" Adeline looks down, clacking her sandals against each-other, "she's sort of really important."

"I know." He says. "But the staff here are under the protection of the faculty, and are paid by the school's funding, which is in part from the royal treasury. We cannot simply allow someone to just-"

"What if I painted a picture of everyone on a trip to the beach?"

"The beach you say?" He instantly changes his tone, lighting up. "Why, everyone would be scandalously clad…" He rubs his beard. It is very long, massive in fact, a beard of legends. "You can paint?"

"Give me a description of Miss Longueville's panties and I'll make you a sample right now!" She grins gleefully, opening up her bag and beginning to pull out paint supplies.

* * *

"Not that I am in any way capable of dictating what you should or should not do, but in my most lowly opinion, I would say you probably shouldn't be lying directly on the ground staring at the sun… Not that it means anything what I think, I mean."

The Asian maid from last night seems a lot more timid when she's not drunk, Adeline notes. "No, you are absolutely right, this is terrible for my eyes…" She muses. "I have been staring for like forty minutes too, you are so far the first person to say a word."

That sits for a few moments. "You mean to tell me." Siesta, Adeline thinks her name was, takes a deep breath. "That actual human beings have been walking by a young girl staring directly into the sun in what appears to be a drunken haze, for almost an hour."

"Yeah." Adeline nods. "At this point I can't actually see anything, it's just blackness and pain."

"Then stop looking at it!" The kick from that Asian maid is something Adeline can get behind, in fact her whole body does as she rolls a few times from the force.

"I'm joking." Adeline giggles upon stopping, idly rubbing her arm. "I can see just fine. My familiar runes have apparently been boosting me, and I wanted to see in what ways. Apparently my eyes are healing at a similar rate to which the sun is doing damage…"

Siesta sighs, before suddenly freezing up. "You're uh, not gonna, um, report me for kicking you, are you?"

"I might." Adeline says, "depends. Hey, you wanna go on a trip?"

"Oh, of course." The strained smile on Siesta's face puts an uncomfortable expression on Adeline's. "If that's the price for your forgiveness I will gladly pay it." Siesta getting on her knees and bowing isn't something Adeline's face appreciates either.

"No, no, you are forgiven I was joking, it is called sarcasm. I just wanna know if you wanna come. I went ahead and got the headmaster's permission already. I mean I guess I could take some other maid but honestly? I like you, you have guts."

"Ahh…" Siesta gets back to her feet. "Well, as pleased as I am by the compliment, and your gracious offer, and your forgiveness, I am going to have to pass. My family is reliant on me to work hard and send back money whenever I can."

"So you won't skip work for me?" Adeline asks.

"No."

"And you're not at all just blaming me about the fact that you decided to sleep on the floor?" Adeline smirks.

"I did not decide, you stole my bed!" She snaps, "I mean. A noble needed my bed, of course I would sleep on the floor."

Adeline grumbles. "I told you that you could just sleep next to me…"

"Was I actually supposed to take that seriously?" Siesta deadpans.

"Would you rather I make it an order next time?" Adeline asks.

For some reason, the woman's face reddens immensely. "Order, no, please, um, don't do that. I-I"

"Oh come on!" Adeline's palms hit her eyes. "I don't think I could say 'I couldn't even pretend to care about all this noble shit if I tried' any louder if I actually shouted it at the top of my lungs! Stop taking everything I say so directly…"

Based on Siesta's awkward shuffling of her feet, she's not quite sure how to respond to that.

"Look, you don't wanna go on the trip that's fine. But at least listen to my terms, please?"

Siesta sits down, ready to listen.

"First, money. We're bound to do a bit of treasure hunting, you don't actually have to participate but I'll give you my share of the treasure we find. Seriously, aside from the cost of basic necessities, and I mean real necessities not noble necessities, you can just have everything. I don't care."

Adeline notes Siesta seems doubtful still.

"Next, you'll be in charge of all the maps as our guide, so you'll get to lead around a bunch of nobles. And so help me they will respect you as our guide or I will punish them." Adeline grins at that last part.

"Coming from The Vengeful One, that's kind of crazy…" Siesta trails.

"Vengeful one?" Adeline asks, "oh, did I gain a new title?" At Siesta's nod Adeline cheers. "There, that one sounds kind of cool. Doesn't really make me seem like a good person though, I'll have to work on that… Anyway, yeah. So you get to lead nobles around, and maybe they'll be prickly at first but they'll come around to it for sure, meaning noble contacts and a chance to get in their good graces. Most importantly, I've heard my master is rather powerful. What do you think she'll say when I tell her when I needed help on a large trip, a maid was more than willing to go above and beyond to help me with a smile? Hmm? Sounds like connections."

"I think... " Siesta gulps, "It sounds too good to be true."

* * *

The sun is still high in the sky when everyone meets in the courtyard. Guiche is prim, proper, looking ready to go on a quest for maiden and not at all a real outdoors quest. Kirche and Tabitha show up on a blue dragon. It is a nice creature, friendly and noisy in its happiness just to be here. It immediately makes Adeline an exception to its friendly rule, glaring at her as if she's the devil incarnate.

The dragon is not the only one, Adeline's struggling to get her horse to even cooperate. It has shown itself a temperamental beast that won't stop trying to kick her in the face every time it gets a chance. In fact it almost manages it when she turns to greet Siesta. Narrowly avoiding it by a strand of hair.

Siesta is by far the most ready, at least in appearance. Siesta's clothes are thick and form fitting, and dozens of tools are strapped to a harness of some sort. She's got a pack on her back, her hair is tied back, she's even got a whip. Adeline can't help but whistle, which gives the horse another attempt to knock her head from her shoulders. Less than fruitful, but a nice attempt.

It is after this next attempt that Adeline finally notices the dragon's glare. "Ooh, sweet!" Even if it appears to be excitement she jumps for, and not at all indignancy at being treated so rudely by two different animals in one sitting. "Can I ride on the dragon?" She asks as she approaches, and then reaching out to pet it well before any answer can be given. Not that one was coming quick enough. She barely dodges the dragon's jaws as they try to rip her arm off. Tabitha shakes her head as the dragon growls. "Awww, come onnnn! Dragon be niiiiice!"

Professionalism is shown as she attempts to hug and pet the dragon. The others would later describe the scene as surreal. Dreamlike in that its like could not be replicated even in the most bizarre of dreams. Disturbing in a way that shifts their stomachs, and yet adorable in a way that displaces their hearts into their throats. To put it simply. For Adeline, this is a casual scene of trying to pet the dragon, a scene which drives in for everyone else that her reality is not necessarily their reality, a realization made before they even make their first step outside the grounds of the school. A realization that would serve them well in the future.

For to them it's not a cute girl trying to pet an unwilling dragon. It's a little girl enthusiastically trying to pet a beast and completely missing that it is doing its damnedest to brutally murder her.

A blast of wind from Tabitha's staff cuts the scene short, perhaps for the better and Adeline grudgingly gets on her horse. "Fiiine, alright, is everyone ready?" Without even waiting for a 'yes', her horse is off, and consequently so is everyone else's a few moments later. Well, a bit more than that for Guiche and Siesta who've yet to even pick one, let alone get on one. Too busy were they gawking at the scene, burrowing realizations and perspectives of reality into their noggins.

Tabitha and Kirche take to the air immediately, following and creating an excellent beacon in the air for the other two to notice and catch up to.

"Having second thoughts?" Guiche asks Siesta.

And Siesta shakes her head. "Someone has to stop her from cuddling a lion."

"We're gonna need drinks aren't we?"

"All the drinks."


End file.
